Step 36
by Mackiecam
Summary: Ranger and Steph are on their honeymoon in Atlanta. They attend a burlesque show and Steph recognizes Chastity Knott, a girl from high school, dancing in the chorus line. She appears scared though... Definitely a babe and posted twice daily
1. Chapter 1

_The following story is a work of fiction_ _that features characters developed by Janet Evanovich. No money has been earned through writing this story. Any similarities to real events or persons are __entirely coincidental. _

_Although a stand-alone, this book builds upon the previous books in my series. Because it is a stand-alone, however, there is a lot of review in the first chapter and a lot of explanation of how I have changed the characters and backstories from JE's. I know some people find that a bit tedious. If you are sensitive to that and don't want the review, feel free to skip reading the first chapter._

_Out of the previous books in my series, the first one is a bit cupcake-y, but the rest are pure babes and develop the relationships between the characters. For maximum enjoyment, I suggest that you read them in the following order:_

_22 Caliber_

_Trigger Happy 23 _

_Morelli's Argument 23.5_

_Ranger 23.75_

_Threatening 24_

_Fixation 25_

_Security 26_

_Sneaky 27_

_Date Night at the Movies 27.1_

_Meeting Maria 27.2_

_The Intervention 27.3_

_Envious 28_

_Dickie's Demise 28.1_

_Mob Matters 28.2_

_Altercation at Giovichinni's 28.3_

_Numbskull 29_

_Toxic 30_

_Obit 31_

_Tamper 32_

_Theft 33_

_Forced 34_

_Fiesta 35_

_In recognition of the fact that I'm a binge reader and don't personally like to wait for updates, I will try to post twice a day, barring unseen life events._

_Reviews, as always, are greatly appreciated. I have a few people who regularly review for me, and I'd like to thank you for that. Your reviews have given me the confidence to write another story. I appreciate all reviews and try to respond to each and every one. Please note that I cannot respond to reviews that have been posted by guests. Also please note that there are times that the fan fiction site has glitches and doesn't allow me to respond to reviews. I am still reading and appreciating the reviews, however, and I apologize in advance if I don't respond to your comments. _

_Thank you for reading my story. I hope you enjoy it!_

_~ Sarah ~_

**Chapter One**

I walked off the plane beside Ranger. I was sad to say goodbye to Miami, but was looking forward to investigating the City of Atlanta. I was newly married to Ricardo Carlos Manoso, otherwise known as Ranger, and we were on our honeymoon. We had been married three days before in Trenton but Julie, Ranger's daughter from his first marriage, and his ex and her husband had been invited to the wedding. Because Ranger and I had decided to make it a working holiday and because Ranger had to do some work in Miami, and because Rachel and Ron and Julie were returning to their hometown of Miami anyway, Ranger had chartered a plane as a special treat to take the five of us back.

The first night we were in Miami we did work. Ranger and I both worked for Ranger's company, Rangeman, a full-service private security firm that did everything from system design and installation to monitoring and maintenance. We provided security guards and bodyguards, and we did private investigations and cybersecurity and research. The last function, research, was my area of expertise. I was the research director, and I found out people's secrets using an in-house designed software program called In-Spect. The software worked like a Google search engine, and searched through the vast amount of information on the web to create a dossier on a person's life. The file it created would have a range of information from medical to academic to professional to criminal to financial. That information would be inputted by In-Spect into a standardized form – the fields were automatically populated and a report was created. The analysts would then review that form to see if a need for further research was identified. If it was, we would investigate the links identified through the initial search. That was the basis of most of our research. We did this for client startups for those companies wanting to make sure there are no security risks in their employees; for clients looking for security risks in new hires; or, for our sales department so that they could use that information in the marketing of our services.

That wasn't all the research we did though. We did more detailed searches that led us down rabbit holes and through data dumps to find out everything possible about a company or an individual. In this work, we did corporate overviews and analysis as to the health of a company for real estate offices and real estate lawyers looking to broker sales deals. We did similar due diligence reviews for a mutual fund company looking to add certain corporations to their portfolio. We did in-depth analysis of felons for two police forces, and were in the process of signing on an additional three other police departments and the DEA to do this type of in-depth search, and we identified known haunts and other places where felons were typically found in capture plans for our police force clients as well as various bonds offices.

I had experience developing capture plans. In addition to being a research director, I worked for a bonds company going out to retrieve felons. When a felon was arrested, they often had the ability to pay a bond to allow them to walk free until their court date. When they showed up for their hearing, the money was returned to them.

However, felons often didn't have the money to pay the bond. That's where a bonds company came in. For the price of fifteen percent of the bond and the lending of some collateral, the bonds company would pay their bail. When they returned for their hearing, the courts would return the bail to the bond company and the bond company would return the collateral to the felon. The bonds company, however, kept the fifteen percent.

If the felon didn't turn up for their hearing, the bonds company wouldn't get their bail bond back. The bonds company didn't like that. Without that money returned, they couldn't lend the money to another felon and earn another fifteen percent. So they got mad, and hired a bounty hunter to return the felon to the system. For that, ten percent of the price of the bond was given to the bounty hunter for their trouble and the remaining five percent of the bond fee was kept by the bonds company for administrative purposes. The faster the felon was returned to the system, the better it was for the bonds company. When the felon was returned to the system, the whole process started again – just with the bond required by the court at a higher dollar value. Some felons went through this process several times before they simply couldn't afford to miss court any longer.

I had been a rookie bounty hunter for Vincent Plum Bail Bonds when I met Ranger. I was supremely unqualified for the position and didn't have any of the natural skills necessary to do the job. Ranger mentored me and taught me everything I knew about being a bounty hunter, which didn't say much about his skills as a trainer. However, while I wasn't particularly effective at picking up skips, I was fairly good at creating capture plans. We had five bonds companies as clients, and our staff picked up the felons for three of them. The only reason we didn't pick up the felons for the other two were because those particular bonds companies weren't in Trenton and we didn't have patrol staff there available to pick up the felons.

We had research requests for all our different clients coming out of our ears. A year before, I was the only researcher on staff. I now had six and a half people working for me, and my department was growing again. Ranger, with the help of the Executive Director of his Miami branch, had decided that it made sense to centralize our research department. When I got back to Trenton, I would be hiring another staff member to do the work for the Miami branch of Rangeman.

We were in Atlanta for our honeymoon for three days, but it was to be a working holiday. Ranger was purchasing another security company that had five locations. With this, Rangeman would have seven locations in total and, because the new company didn't have the research capabilities of our staff – or the ownership of In-Spect, the most comprehensive search engine that had ever been developed – Ranger had decided to centralize their research departments as well. This would mean that we'd increase my staff complement by an additional five people to cover the research needs of the new company. However, if the research abilities of our company were marketed in our new cities and if the service was as popular as it was in our hometown of Trenton, we'd be growing much more and adding more staff on quite quickly. Ranger's estimation was that our staff would grow from the one person six months ago to around twenty in the next five years. I thought, judging by the work that was coming that I knew of, that we might achieve that staff complement within two.

My ability to do research had been especially helpful recently. When Julie had come to Trenton, it had come to our attention that she was being stalked. Leo, from Cybersecurity, identified the man and found out that, despite Julie's belief that he was a fifteen-year old boy, he was actually a twenty-nine year old Honduran man in the States with diplomatic immunity and was a known stalker and pedophile. When I researched him, I found that his father was the diplomat and was using his diplomatic channels to import dog food laced with cocaine. The son, in addition to stalking children, had been arranging for the pet food to be separated from the cocaine and was selling the cocaine down the eastern seaboard. Through my research, I was able to identify the problem – but I wasn't able to prove it. I was able to take the case as far as I could without finding specific people who had been sold the drugs by the man or proving the purification of the cocaine.

After I did my job, Ranger did his. He talked to the cities where girls had reported being assaulted. He talked to the City of Miami's police department to report Julie's stalking. He talked to the DEA and had them trace the pet food through to the facility that separated out the cocaine, and he talked to the Honduran President, a friend of his, and arranged for the man and his diplomat father to be deported back to Honduras to stand trial for his drug trafficking and pedophile charges.

Ranger was able to do that because he had a lot of friends in high places. Ranger had a secret but effective past. When he graduated from high school, he joined the army and quickly became a Ranger. He had been involved in a number of high-security missions that I didn't know the details on, and had developed a number of high-level contacts. The mission that was the most important, however, was the mission where he was part of the Ranger team that transported the deceased Osama bin Laden to the US ship for burial at sea.

The al-Qaeda weren't very happy with the US government, both for killing bin Laden as well as for not letting them bury him themselves. In revenge, they targeted every member of the SEAL team that killed him and the Ranger team that transported him, and after a few of the team members were murdered by the al-Qaeda the US government erased all links between the mission itself and the men who had been a part of it. Ranger went a step farther and, when he retired from the army a couple of years later, he asked the government to create an alternate identity for him. He had been given a new Social Security number and a new history. Ranger, graduate from a business program at Douglass College, was born and Ranger, former team lead and decorated soldier in the US Rangers, died a quiet death. If I searched for him using In-Spect, I would find someone who didn't match up with the person I knew.

Since then, Ranger tried to live off the grid. His army pension was paid to Rangeman rather than to Ranger himself, and it was couched as the purchase of security services. We lived in an office building. All our credit cards were company cards. Our car was a company car. Our phones were company phones. Short of facial recognition, there was little that could be used to track Ranger.

This was important as the al-Qaeda were not the only people who had targeted Ranger. After Ranger left the army, he helped start up PMC, or Private Military Contractors – a company made up of mercenaries who were hired to do all the shit jobs that the government wanted done but didn't think were possible. Comprised of the best operatives in the business, they did everything from reconnaissance to extractions to attacks, and had clients ranging from the military to a variety of alphabet agencies both from the US and other countries, to multinational private corporations. Ranger was the best in the world for reconnaissance and leading teams into enemy territory to find evidence and shut down operations. With his Hispanic looks and fluency in Spanish, he had done a lot of work in Central and South America in the War on Drugs. Through his work, he had developed relationships with a number of people higher up in the governments in those countries, and he'd pissed off drug lords throughout the continent.

Because Ranger was getting known for his work in shutting down illegal operations and it was therefore getting too personally dangerous to continue to enter enemy territory, he had become a trainer for PMC. He had done that for the past two years and had been doing well at it. However, it required him to be in Colombia at the PMC headquarters and training facility approximately eight weeks out of the year, and with settling down with me and growing his company, Ranger didn't feel comfortable being away from Trenton so frequently. He had, a month before, retired from his trainer position and become just a member of the Board of Directors. He had not given up his part-ownership in the company. As he said, it was a huge moneymaker for Rangeman and covered his salary, and being on the Board of Directors didn't take much time.

Ranger was concerned about his involvement in all these dangerous activities not only for himself, but also for me. He felt that association with him brought danger to me – and our unborn baby. I was twenty-one weeks pregnant with our first child. Tia Rose was due on July fourth.

To help protect the baby, Ranger and I had chosen a bodyguard with an interest in childcare to be her nanny. To help protect me, Ranger had put trackers on everything I owned – my watch, my purse, my car…the only way I could be safer would be for Ranger to microchip me. I mentioned that to him once, and when he looked intrigued by the idea I decided not to mention it again.

On my watch was a panic button. I could press that and a Rangeman team would come running. I'd had the watch for nine months and unfortunately I'd had to use the watch panic button several times. Four months ago I had been almost kidnapped. Three months ago, I had been approached by a man intent on killing me. Two months ago, I had been shot twice. Luckily I had been wearing the bulletproof jacket that Ranger had gotten me for my birthday. One month ago, my bodyguard had been shot when the shooter had been aiming for me. Through it all, I was fine and the baby was fine. Ranger? Not so much. He had seen me get shot both times before Christmas and had arrived late to the party with the other threats. He was struggling with me being in danger. He had started to suffer from nightmares. Always a bit overprotective, he became more so. He wanted to know where I was going, who I'd be with and what time I'd be back, and I swore he tracked my location the whole time I was away. Always calm and collected, he was now constantly tense and poised for action. He had started seeing the corporate psychiatrist on a weekly basis to help him with his anxiety.

It didn't help that, not only was I in danger, but the baby was in danger as well. When the man intent on killing me approached me, we got into a tussle and he kicked me in the stomach. This resulted in bleeding and I'd had to lie down with my feet up for ten days to give the baby a fighting chance. When I was shot, the baby was fine but I was advised again to lie down with my feet up. Things had been going well with the baby until a week ago. A routine checkup showed that my blood pressure was high, and the doctor had limited me to fifty hours a week of work. Since I had recently reduced my workweek from one hundred hours to seventy-five hours, I didn't know how I would reduce it further. However, Ranger was upset by the danger to me and baby Tia, and he had banned me from the office for the next month.

Of course, we found out about Julie's stalking after that ban had been enforced and Ranger had let me break that ban to work on the needed research. He said I was Rangeman's best researcher. I didn't know if I was, but I was just glad he let me do the research. I had been upset about Julie being stalked and, as I told Ranger, it would upset me more to think about it and not do anything proactive about it than it would for me to do the research myself.

So we were in Atlanta for our honeymoon and so that Ranger could purchase Pearl Security. It was a multimillion-dollar deal that would vault our company into being one of the top income earners in Trenton. Already profitable, Rangeman would now net almost seventy-five million in revenues annually. If this purchase went well, Ranger intended to expand again into other locations around the US.

Ranger was struggling a bit with the growth. He had recently reorganized the company so that there were more managers who were responsible for more in their job descriptions. However, he was growing from a staff of over four hundred between his two locations to one that was almost fourteen hundred through the seven locations, and that sort of growth was challenging to manage easily. Ranger had to change from being an owner who had a hands-on management style, to one that just managed; had to change from one that got down in the trenches and helped out with the work, to one that relied on his managers to do that work for him. It was a steep learning curve that, as an employee looking on, he made look easy. As his spouse, however, I knew how difficult he was finding it.

Ranger was talking to the psychiatrist about that as well. The psychiatrist called him a workaholic, and I had to agree. He recently cut back his hours and was now working seventy-five hours a week. The doctor had challenged him to work the same fifty hours I worked, and Ranger was feeling overwhelmed. He wanted to work the same hours I was working and agreed that he should be in theory, even just to be there for me, but the practice of it was a little more challenging. I understood that and was trying to support him in any way I could.

The psychiatrist told him that every person had four legs – family, friends, work and spiritual. The only area of his life that wasn't changing was spiritual. His family was growing with the addition of me and Tia, his friends were growing with the addition of my friends, and work was changing with the addition of Pearl Security and his retirement from PMC. So much was changing, and Ranger was reeling a bit with it all. Ranger was receiving support for that from the psychiatrist as well.

Ranger had been finding the sessions with the psychiatrist helpful. As he said, before he started, he had a whole lot of feeling balled up in a layer of anxiety, and he was so overwhelmed that he couldn't tease out the specific feelings to do something about them. The psychiatrist was helping him separate out and identify the specific feelings so that he could act upon them. I had found that, since he had started seeing the psychiatrist, he was still abnormally overprotective but he seemed more settled and more grateful for the little things. As someone who had been traditionally calm and peaceful, he was getting in touch with his Zen again – and I couldn't be happier.


	2. Chapter 2

We checked into the Four Seasons. As we received our key cards, the hotel representative gave us an envelope. "Compliments of the man who booked your room", he said.

"Thanks", said Ranger. He took the envelope from the representative as I took our key card folder, and I wheeled my suitcase to the elevator. Ranger walked beside me with his army duffel bag slung over his shoulder. I felt bad for him that his bag didn't have wheels on it, but when I mentioned it, Ranger just laughed. Apparently when you were as muscular as Ranger was, the weight from an army duffel bag was unimportant.

And Ranger was muscular. He had the body build that showed a strength that was unsurpassed. His face was equally as impressive. In addition to being the strongest person both physically and mentally that I'd ever met, he was the hottest man I'd ever seen as well, and that included movie stars and all the 'beautiful' people in Hollywood. He was tanned, had brown eyes that changed color according to his mood – a soft warm brown when he was feeling particularly loving but darkening to an almost-black when aroused – and short, dark brown hair cut in a professional style. He was 6'1", but his commanding personality made him appear taller.

He was the complete opposite to me. I was 5'7", pale with blue eyes, and had medium-brown curly hair. I was traditionally a 34B and 130 pounds, but had grown to a 34D with pregnancy and so far had gained ten pounds, and I had to say that I was enjoying the change. Maybe not the pregnancy weight, but the pregnancy growth in cup size was good. Ranger said that he liked that change and, although I had been perfect in size before, he said I was now even more perfect. I'd had to warn him that the size might not be staying, and Ranger had seemed to decide to make the most of it while it was there. We'd had a lot of fun with that increased size. Of course, the increased sensitivity was good as well.

We took the elevator up to the top floor and accessed our suite. It was the nicest hotel suite that I had ever seen. The view was excellent and the lodgings were luxurious. I investigated the rooms. The living room, dining room and kitchenette were comfortable and spacious. I looked in the fridge. There was a tray of cheeses and pickles and crackers covered with stretch wrap, another of a bowl of strawberries, and a bottle of non-alcoholic white wine. Apparently they had heard that I was pregnant.

I wheeled my suitcase into the separate bedroom and looked around. The bed was a king and was so welcoming in its snowy comfort that I thought I might have to have a nap. I would have slept during the plane ride, but there was a baby in coach who didn't like flying much and cried for the entire flight. Many of the people in first class had made use of the free alcoholic drinks to help them cope with the frantic wailing, but I was unable to partake of this form of relief. Instead, I now had a headache and my nerves were shot. I hoped that, when we had kids, they didn't cry like that. I didn't know if I'd be able to take it.

I opened my suitcase and hung my clothes in the closet. The closet was already populated with two dressing robes, and I looked forward to having a hot shower and washing off the tension of the last week. In the previous seven days we'd had an ultrasound done that identified that we were having a girl, found out that my blood pressure was elevated and that I'd have to significantly reduce the number of hours I worked each week, discovered that Julie was being stalked, gotten married, grown my research department by centralizing the research needs of the company and potentially adding the DEA and the Miami Police Department, and now were buying a two hundred million-dollar company. Despite many of those events being good ones, they were all sources of stress. I hoped that, with the purchase of Pearl Security, the high-octane nature of the last week would be lessened and we would be able to coast for a while.

As I unpacked my things, Ranger opened the envelope. "They're tickets to a burlesque dinner show tonight", he said.

"That's great" I said with a yawn. "What time is the show?"

"Eight o'clock." Ranger noticed me looking longingly at the bed. "It's only four, babe. Why don't you nap for three hours before getting ready to go to the show tonight? I'll wake you at seven so that we can leave at seven-thirty."

"Wake me at six-thirty and you have a deal", I said. "That gives me an hour to wake up, have a shower and get ready. That's more than enough time." I unpacked my toiletries bag and walked into the ensuite. I used the facilities as Ranger waited outside, and washed my face free of makeup as he came in. At one point, Ranger would have come into the bathroom when I was peeing, but I personally found that gross and had now trained him to wait outside. It was, in fact, the only thing that he had done that I found irritating. I was just glad that he had always given me my privacy for pooping. I would have been more than irritated about that one.

"Are you tired, babe?" said Ranger quietly as I finished washing the makeup off my face.

"Exhausted, actually", I said. "Julie ran me ragged yesterday." Julie and her mom had volunteered to take me to all the places in Miami that Julie liked to visit. Apparently there were lots of places on her list. I went to a number and by the end of the day Julie was disappointed that we couldn't do more. I told her to remember where we'd gone and the next time I was down we could see the rest.

"It didn't help that I had another nightmare last night", said Ranger. He was right. It hadn't. I had woken up with Ranger crying in his sleep, and after we talked about the nightmare and Ranger was calm again, I was too worried about Ranger to go back to sleep. Ranger hadn't gone back to sleep either, and had needed to hold me tightly and remind himself that I was with him and that I was okay. We had each only had four hours of sleep.

"It is what it is", I said. "Your nightmare was only a problem because it showed that you're still upset about seeing me get shot."

"The danger to Julie didn't help."

"No, I imagine it didn't. The good news is that the man who was stalking her is now on his way back to Honduras for punishment and can't hurt her again, Julie learned a lesson about internet safety and is planning on spreading word of what happened to other kids in schools, and an important drug trafficker was stopped. It all ended well." Julie said that she wasn't a good public speaker, but had told the police that she would like to talk to schools about what happened to her in hopes that kids would become a little more careful regarding their internet usage. She was trying to turn an upsetting experience into something that was positive. She said that it would make her feel less like a victim, less helpless. The MPD was thrilled that she was willing to talk to the schools and said they would work with her to write the speech that she would be giving.

"It may have all ended well, but I'm not going to recover as quickly as the case was solved", said Ranger.

"Me neither. Do you want to lie down with me? You must be just as tired as I am."

"I got four hours of sleep last night. That's enough. If I sleep now, I won't sleep tonight."

"I will."

Ranger's eyes turned soft as he looked at me. "I know", he said. He waited until I took all my clothes off and held the covers back as I got into bed.

"What are you planning on doing while I sleep?"

Ranger smiled. "Work", he said. "Wes sent me the organizational chart for his company, and I'll like to reorganize it so that it makes use of Rangeman's expertise. Wes hasn't done a lot with corporate planning, and I'd like to start to put together a unified corporate plan for our joint corporation. Wes's company is good on design, installation, monitoring and security guards. However, whereas he has expanded out and gone from two locations to five, I have expanded in and added bodyguards, cybersecurity, investigations and research to my arsenal of services offered. Wes doesn't have a corporate mission statement, nor does he have a set of goals or a five-year strategy. He has grown his company organically, whereas I think those things are needed for the company to be successful. I can see why Wes's company was starting to flounder. It didn't have a plan to allow it to grow and prosper."

"You'll be able to turn it into something amazing."

Ranger thought about smiling. "I certainly hope so. I'm hoping that, if I let you sleep, I'll be able to free up some time to visit the sights with you this weekend. Even if it's just to be able to take the evenings off to enjoy each other and spend time together."

I smiled. I knew what that meant, and I could hardly wait.

Ranger laughed. "I meant to have long romantic dinners together", he said.

I must have looked disappointed, because Ranger laughed again, leaned over, and kissed my lips. "I love you", he said softly. He kissed me again. "Rest up. It is, after all, our honeymoon."

I smiled. Hopefully that meant that we would make use of the fact that I hadn't been planning on wearing nightwear to bed. I mean, I had brought a maternity nightie but I hadn't bought anything sexy and in fact didn't know if they made anything sexy in maternity sizes. It was just as well. I didn't feel particularly sexy either. However, Ranger had a way of making me forget that I was pregnant. He said that he found my pregnant body an incredible turn-on. I was glad he did. I personally didn't. But even though it wasn't a turn-on for me, the loving with Ranger hadn't dimmed at all. It still only took a single look and I was ready and willing for him.

The chemistry between Ranger and me had always been strong. When we met, I was interested in him. He said he fell in love with me at first sight, but he hadn't wanted to start a relationship because he didn't want me to be in any danger associated with knowing him. By the time he decided to ask me out, I had started seeing Joe Morelli, a Trenton police detective. Joe was a good guy and we had an on-again, off-again relationship for about four years. While he remained one of my closest friends, he wasn't a good person for me romantically. He was a little too hotheaded for me to have a comfortable relationship with, and he was too dramatic whenever I ended up in danger. Since, for some reason, I seemed to get in danger a lot, it meant that he was always throwing his hands in the air and stomping around in circles flapping his arms like a demented chicken. That was tough to live with when I was already upset about whatever danger had presented itself to me at the time.

Joe and I broke up for the final time last May. The breakup had been coming for a while, and Ranger was part of the reason. While I loved Joe, I realized that I loved him more as a friend. And while I was best friends with Ranger, I realized I loved him more as a partner. So I broke up with Joe. After letting me recover for a few weeks and figure out what I wanted exactly out of life, Ranger asked me out. Three months later I moved in with him. A month after that, we discovered my pregnancy. And now, eight months after we officially started seeing each other, we were married. Although our relationship appeared to have progressed quickly, it had actually been underway for the previous four years through our deepening friendship. Marriage just seemed like the natural next step.

We hadn't been trying to get pregnant when we did. In fact, we hadn't wanted kids and had been using birth control diligently. I still don't know why the birth control didn't work and put it down to God's will – and the fact that Ranger seemed to have supersperm. Rachel had been using birth control diligently as well when she and Ranger got pregnant with Julie. So we hadn't wanted kids but sometimes life had a way of surprising you. Ranger had gotten used to the idea of us having kids almost within hours after it was confirmed. It took me a few weeks longer. However, now I had jumped on the baby carriage with both feet and was quite pleased to be having a baby. I could hardly wait until we delivered the little peanut and were able to meet her for the first time.

Ranger was just as excited as I was. When we had learned the week before that we were having a baby girl, Ranger and I had gone shopping for baby clothes and had decided that our baby was going to be spoiled. We had bought one of every baby girl's clothing that was being sold at Costco. We'd had a good time, and we now had the beginnings of a suitable layette. We must have bought ten sleepers and seven different outfits of various sizes. When we got back to Trenton, we were planning on researching and buying our furniture for Tia's nursery.

We lived in a three-bedroom penthouse apartment in the Rangeman building in Trenton. At thirty-five hundred square feet, the place was large. However, the seven-floor Rangeman building itself was too small for the number of people working there. It currently had a variety of offices and residences in the building. To address this, in another month Ranger was breaking ground on another building next to the current building. This new building would just hold residences, and the existing building would become a designated office building. Since we were bursting at the seams and people were starting to bicker with the reduced space, until the new building was constructed and the office building renovations were complete Ranger had rented additional office facilities close to the Rangeman building for all administrative and support staff. This left only operations staff in our existing building. As a member of Operations, I had stayed. Ranger had retained his office in the exiting building as well. The only member of the administrative and support staff who hadn't switched over was the company psychiatrist. Gabriel had stayed for two reasons. Firstly, the majority of his clients were all operations staff and it didn't make sense to ask them to travel to the new building just for an appointment. The majority of Operations were former military personnel and, since military personnel were known for having shitty mental health, Ranger tried to address that through providing the therapist. However, maybe more importantly, there were no dedicated offices in the rented office space, and if Gabriel had moved over his patients would have no privacy to talk to him.

The new building would have a footprint that was double the size of our existing building. This meant that, since Ranger's and my apartment would again be the penthouse floor, the apartment would be about seven thousand square feet. It would be massive, and would have six bedroom suites including the nanny's, an office each for Ranger and myself, a laundry room and a powder room, and a kitchen, dining room, living room, family room and sunroom. It would also have a large wrap-around belvedere.

Construction on the new building was supposed to be completed by the end of the year but, construction being what it was, we anticipated that the construction of the residence building and the renovations to the office building would take a total of about eighteen months. Sooner than that and we'd be thrilled.

Because we would be moving in another year to a year and a half, Ranger and I had decided not to decorate the nursery in our existing apartment the way we would like to, and instead would paint the room a generic neutral and wait until Tia had moved into her permanent bedroom before we decorated her room as a formal nursery. We had planned out what we wanted to do with her room though, when we eventually moved into our new digs.

So as far as a generic room decoration, we had her room painted a soft cream when the other bedrooms in the apartment were painted. I had found, on Etsy, a handmade crib quilt that would be perfect in pinks and whites, and we were planning on getting a white crib and other nursery furniture. The one concession to our desire to decorate her nursery was the purchase of dinner plate-sized three dimensional pink and cream paper flowers to affix to the wall above her crib. While in the new apartment the nursery would have a brown pallet wood wall that would showcase the flowers well, we thought they would also look nice on the wall in the existing room. We planned on hanging them with picture hanging strips so that they wouldn't damage the paint.

So we were incredibly excited about the baby, incredibly excited about the new building's construction, and incredibly excited about the purchase of Pearl Security. While we were in a state of flux and it was challenging with everything changing in our lives, we were also thrilled to be where we were in our lives and were grateful to be in this space together. We felt like we had the world by the tail, and I think both of us were a little poised for it all to come crashing down on top of us.


	3. Chapter 3

I got dressed in a nice dress for the evening, and added my heels and my evening purse. It wasn't the fanciest dress that I had brought on our holiday – that was a tea-length fit-and-flare dress with a coordinating wrap I was saving that for the formal celebratory dinner that Wes was taking us out to the next night, after Ranger signed the purchase agreement. That dress was in Rangeman black and was the same color as our uniforms. I thought it was appropriate.

This dress that I was wearing tonight was a white and navy flower-print cross-your-heart short-sleeved dress. I felt pretty in it and was glad that Ranger had encouraged me to get it the week before when we were shopping.

I had gone maternity shopping in December when my yoga pants were stretched to the limits of spandex, and had bought myself a basic wardrobe. It had been my intention to nurse that wardrobe through to the end of the pregnancy. However, Ranger noticed that I didn't have a plethora of clothes to choose from, and the week before had taken me shopping. I had picked out two dresses and two blouses that would be suitable to wear to court when I had to go in another couple of weeks. Ranger had a field day and had me trying on many, many more pieces of clothing. And since he liked most of them and he bought what he liked, I now had as many clothes in my maternity wardrobe as I did in my regular wardrobe, if not more.

I had been embarrassed to have Ranger buying so many things for me. First of all, I didn't think it was practical. I would only be wearing them for six months for this pregnancy and, if we were lucky enough to get pregnant again, for another six months that time as well. I didn't need so many clothes. The other reason was that I didn't want Ranger to spend so much money on me. At the same time, I liked all the clothes that he bought me. He had excellent taste and a good sense of what suited me, both in style as well as in colors and fits. However, after buying the clothes, Ranger took me home and we did some family financial planning. I hadn't realized that Ranger earned as much money as he did, and seeing that in black and white made me feel a little better about him spending money on me. He wouldn't suffer financially for being so generous. In fact, he would barely notice it.

I added a navy blazer and stepped into a pair of pumps as Ranger came out of the bathroom wearing a towel around his waist. He whistled. "I like what you're wearing", he said. "You look amazing."

"I was about to say the same thing to you", I said with a grin.

Ranger thought about smiling and took off his towel. My mouth went dry as I watched him dress in a pair of black twill pants and a solid flannel shirt in so dark a charcoal gray that it looked like a washed out black. He caught my disappointed expression as he did up the last button. "Later, babe", he said, and as I continued to look at him he smiled. "If you keep looking at me like that, we'll miss the show."

I hesitated. I was looking forward to the show. I had been reading about it after I had gotten up from my nap, and it had sounded quite good. However, when faced between the choice of going to the show and more time in bed with Ranger, I thought more time in bed would win.

Ranger huffed out a laugh, handed me my room key, and said, "let's go. I'm hungry, and their dinner is supposed to be good."

I put my room key in my purse and added a couple of tissues because I had always found that important. If you had tissues, you never needed to use them. However, if you didn't have tissues you'd have snot running down your face and you'd be praying that no one else noticed. It was Murphy's Law coming into play. I didn't know who Murphy was, but I thought he had a pretty good understanding of how life worked.

Ranger escorted me out of the suite and over to the elevators. "This hotel is one of the locations that Pearl does the security for. I have traditionally stayed here when I visited Wes, although I have to admit that this is the first time I have stayed in a suite. I had always stayed in a normal room before."

"This is the first time you have come here married to someone."

Ranger smiled. "That's true. When I got married the last time I could barely afford a night at the Hav-a-Nap Motel, and they charged by the hour."

I laughed.

Ranger gave a half-smile and escorted me onto the elevator. We took the car to the main floor and walked out of the hotel. Ranger hailed a cab and we soon were at the dinner theater. A few short minutes after that, we were seated with menus and waters were being poured.

"This theater is one of Pearl's clients as well", said Ranger as he looked around. I could see him assessing the security of the place. Like always, he was one of those people who lived with their back against the wall. Over the years, assessing the security of any given location had become a habit. Details that were hidden from most people were noticed and categorized by Ranger, and at any one time he could tell you all the ways to get into and out of the location, pinpoint where there were security cameras and identify the security staff, either uniformed or undercover. He was the most observant man that I had ever met. Of course, that habit of observing the area surrounding him had kept him alive at times when the chips were against him, so I could see how he would develop those powers of observation. They, at times, literally made the difference between life and death.

As he finished categorizing everything, he looked at me and smiled. "Did I tell you how sexy you look tonight?"

I grinned. "You may have mentioned it once or twice."

Ranger looked at me with soft eyes. "Then I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it again."

I laughed.

He opened his menu and started to read, and I opened mine as well. It didn't take me long to decide. I felt like a steak, and they had one on the menu with a mushroom truffle sauce that sounded scrumptious. Ranger ordered blackened swordfish. I thought it sounded disgusting – who ordered something that was purposely burnt? But then, I wasn't a big fan of fish in the first place. Whenever I thought about eating fish I thought about the goldfish I'd had when I was a kid. I had loved that fish and had been devastated when it had died. I'd made my mom play a recording of 'Taps' when we flushed it down the toilet.

The dinner was a five-course dinner, so I also ordered crab and cheese stuffed mushrooms, a French onion soup and a Caesar salad to eat before my main course. I looked over the desserts and had trouble deciding between a triple berry cheesecake and a vanilla bean crème brulée, and thought that maybe I'd be able to convince Ranger to have the cheesecake when it was time to order the desserts. Knowing him, he wouldn't eat it all – or any – and I would therefore be able to sample both. It was always good to have a plan.

"Did you get done what you wanted to get done this afternoon?" I said as I closed my menu. The waiter came with a basket of warmed bread, and we gave our order.

"Almost. I still have more work to do on the reorganization, but I've had a good chance to look at the areas I want to grow Wes's company and to identify the redundancies between the locations. Research is one area of redundancy. Like with the Miami location, I am closing down all the research departments in the various other locations and centralizing them. There is only one researcher per location anyway, and I suspect they are more used by the Sales staff than anyone else. Wes doesn't offer the service of researching clients' employees to look for security leaks like we do. Wes also doesn't have a cybersecurity division or any investigators or bodyguards. It's just as well as, like with research, I would have centralized cybersecurity and bodyguards anyway. He does, however, have a large contingent of security guards. Ninety percent of his employees are security guards. There are approximately two system designers per location, four installers, one accountant, one researcher, one receptionist, and the rest are patrol and monitoring staff. He has a solid business that provides a good service but there is so much opportunity to develop the company."

"Will you change their corporate name?"

Ranger smiled. "Of course", he said. "I'm proud of the Rangeman name. I've worked hard to make sure that, when you think of Rangeman, you think of excellent service and a quality product. I want to build on that name with the addition of the Pearl Security operation."

"What other changes are you planning on making?"

"I will centralize the finance departments. I plan on keeping all large-scale system design central in Trenton as well. The Mom and Pop businesses and the individual homes can all be designed by local designers. However, the large and complex systems, like that for MoMA or the White House, can really only be done by Mike and Lyle and me." Mike was the director for the system design group, and Lyle was one of his staff. They were talented individuals who, with Ranger, were the preeminent system designers in the country. "Wes hasn't done any of those types of systems."

"I imagine there aren't too many people who are good at doing large-scale design."

"I can only think of five of us in the US, and three of those people, including me, work at Rangeman. I have standing offers with the other two guys to hire them if or when they are ready to leave their current employment."

"Why did Wes not expand into large-scale design?"

"Wes is an excellent trainer for security guards and has developed his company accordingly. He is good on working with the small businesses and individual clients that are involved in a small-scale design and implementation, but it isn't his area of specialty. Because of that, he has focused a lot of his energy on developing his security guard division. That was why we were a good mix. My area of specialty isn't security guards. I can do it, but I'm better at system design and installation, and at monitoring and patrolling. Together, Wes developed the security guard division in Rangeman and I developed the system design, implementation and monitoring that is associated with Pearl Security. When we broke up, he was stuck with the security system division and I was stuck with the security guards. In both cases, however, we have found the other person's book of business to be profitable and so have kept those divisions open and alive in our own operation."

The stuffed mushrooms arrived on the table. Ranger had raw oysters, which I thought looked revolting. It seemed foreign to me that you would purposely eat something you weren't supposed to chew. Ranger must have seen the revulsion in my face as, eyes twinkling, he offered me one. "I don't think I can eat them with being pregnant", I said. Ranger laughed.

"So your research department is growing again", said Ranger. "I have already instructed Justine to find six more staff for you, and have told her that you'll have a list of the qualifications you need by the end of next week. You may, tomorrow, want to contact Dirk and Miguel and ask them to put together a list of qualifications they need." Justine was our recruitment coordinator, and Dirk and Miguel were my research managers. "I was thinking that these people would probably work under Miguel. As we become better known for the corporate work in our new locations, we'll use more of Dirk's expertise and will build up his staff."

"So you think we should be looking for more Gwynnes and Emilys." Gwynne was a librarian by training and Emily was a computer scientist. Both were excellent in their positions.

"I think it is up to you and Miguel primarily, and Dirk secondarily. The three of you are the ones who will have to train them."

"I'll have to put some thought to it. At first glance, I think another librarian would be better than another computer hacker. I think Emily would much prefer to get her hands into the design of the program rather than the use of the program. Comparatively, Gwynne gets excited about analyzing the data that In-Spect spits out, and seeing how far she can push the boundaries of information gathering."

"Anyone that uses analytical abilities in their training would be useful. A new graduate with a college degree would be ideal, especially if their college degree was in an area that required a lot of internet research. I say a recent graduate because I could be wrong, but I think younger people are more adept at internet research than those who are older."

"That makes sense. I was thinking that a criminology degree would be useful for those working in Miguel's area, and a financial analyst would be useful to work under Dirk."

"I agree." Ranger slurped down the last of his oysters. I shuddered as I watched him eat them. I wasn't sure if I could eat oysters while being pregnant or not. I seemed to remember reading that I shouldn't, but it could have been wishful thinking. Either way, it was as good an excuse as any for not sampling one.

As the waiter brought our soups to the table, the lights dimmed, the music started and the dancers came out on the stage.

I looked in disbelief at the dancers. One of them was Chastity Knott, a woman I went to high school with. She was doing a good job in the performance, but I was surprised to see her there. The last I had heard, she was a pole dancer at Kinky Boots. Morelli had gone there for a stag a couple of years before, and according to him she was quite good.

She hadn't changed much in the last fifteen years. She was still slim and her boobs were still perky – far perkier than was normal for a woman in her early thirties. They also looked significantly larger. I suspected that she'd had a little enhancement done. However, what I noticed the most was that although she was smiling, she looked terrified at the same time. I frowned and watched her some more. Something was definitely amiss. I may not have talked to her in over ten years, but we had been friends once. Something was wrong and I was worried about her.

I turned to Ranger. "Do you see the woman dancing, fourth from the left?"

Ranger nodded. "The one who looks terrified?"

"Yes. I was friends with her in high school."

"Really?"

"Do you think we could go backstage in the intermission or after the show? I want to know why she looks so terrified. If it is just because it is her first performance, that would make sense and we could, perhaps, take her out for a drink to celebrate after the show."

"Absolutely. Did you know her well?"

"Remember when I told you about the cheerleader I dropped during tryouts? That's her." I had been trying out for the cheerleading team and was supposed to catch a cheerleader who was doing a flip in the air. But a hornet came buzzing around and I stepped back to get out of its way. Chastity fell down and landed on her neck. She had been accepted to the squad but, due to her injuries, was benched for the first couple of months. I hadn't been accepted to the squad due to stupidity. Since I didn't really want to be a cheerleader anyway, it was no great loss to me.

The only reason I wanted to be a cheerleader was because my sister was the head of the team. The first born, my sister had always been better than me at everything. I always felt like everything I did came up lacking, and I always felt like I was being compared to Val – and failing in the comparison. So I knew that I was jealous of Val, and I'd been struggling with that for years. As time went on and I accepted that I couldn't follow in her footsteps and be happy, our lives had diverged quite a bit. She had been directed and focused and knew what she wanted, and that was a family. She was now married to a kind but ineffectual lawyer and had five children. For years, I had called her Saint Valerie because nothing bad ever happened to her. She was a proud mother and lived for her children, and she was held up as the perfect child because she had a large family and had been able to produce many grandchildren. Comparatively, I had struggled my whole life. Until now, I hadn't been interested in having children. Until now, I hadn't been interested in marriage. But now I had it all – the marriage, the pregnancy and, to top it off, a fabulous job and a marriage to a good provider.

I had thought that I was the only person who suffered from jealousy out of the two of us. However, at Christmas and again at my wedding, I had found out that Val was extremely jealous of me. She had always thought of me as the screw-up so that now, when I was getting married to the most perfect man for me, a man who was doing well professionally, and having my first baby, and I lived in a fabulous apartment that was bigger than her house by far, she was struggling with the green-eyed monster. She had been looking at her life and had decided that she didn't really like her husband and she hated that she had to work to help support the family. She found the five kids draining, and between it all she was extremely jealous. It didn't help that my parents and grandmother had been talking to her about how good my life was, and how happy I was.

She made several inappropriate drunken comments at Christmas. She had upset me, but I hadn't wanted to tell Ranger what she had said. I knew that he would just get mad and when he got mad, he got even. He was just sneaky about it, and the person wouldn't even know that it was coming. I wasn't sure if Val being related to me would protect her from his wrath. But at our wedding she reiterated those comments to me. She told me that Ranger would never stick around for a loser like me. She told me that he was only marrying me for the sake of the baby, and it wouldn't take long until he was cheating on me. She said I had hijacked her life. She said that the life I was leading was the life that she deserved. She said that she had done everything right and I was just a fuck-up, and I didn't deserve a good life because of it. It was hard to listen to and I got very upset.

The worst part was, though, that Ranger's thirteen-year old daughter had overheard the comments. She had gone to her father and told him what had been said, and I was right. Ranger was furious. He said he was angry not only that she had the audacity to say those things, but also because she had said them on the day that she had, thereby putting a huge black stain on my wedding day memories. It was a problem that we'd have to face when we returned to Trenton again.

"Her neck doesn't seem to bother her anymore", said Ranger.

I smiled.


	4. Chapter 4

After the show, Ranger and I were able to make our way backstage. I don't know how Ranger did it, but he was able to get us in. I think he was making note of how easy it was for him, something to be used in the overview of their security system.

When we saw Chastity, I complimented her on the show. It had been just as good as the reviews had said, and Chastity's part had been danced to perfection. I told her that and she smiled at me. It was a strained smile.

I introduced her to Ranger, and he invited her out for a drink. "The bar at our hotel is supposed to be excellent and prides themselves on mixing unique cocktails", he said. "I'd personally like to check it out, and we'd be happy if you joined us."

She thought about that for a moment, and as she looked up and saw a weasel of a man coming towards her, she quickly agreed. He was a Ken-doll pretty boy, but he looked too slick and assured of himself, and immediately my Spidey-senses went on high alert.

I looked at Ranger, and he was looking at the man. I knew that he had seen Chastity notice him, and I knew that Ranger was memorizing what the man looked like in case he had to deal with him again in the future. His Spidey-senses must have been tingling as well, as when he escorted us out of the dressing room he walked behind and to the side of Chastity in full bodyguard mode. I didn't think that Chastity recognized it for what it was, but I did and I appreciated Ranger caring for my friend in such a manner.

"Have you eaten?" said Ranger as we taxied our way back to the hotel.

Chastity shook her head. "I haven't had time."

"Then how about, instead of us going to the cocktail bar, you come back to our room and we order room service?" said Ranger.

"I can't ask you to do that", said Chastity. "Room service is expensive."

"Steph will want me to order something from room service anyway, just so that she has the option of a midnight snack if she so desires", said Ranger. He looked at me and smiled, but he was alert and focused, and I could tell that he really wanted her back in our room.

"Come on, Chastity", I said. "We can use the time to catch up."

Chastity thought about it a moment longer, before finally deciding to come up to the room with us. When we entered the suite, she looked intimidated by her surroundings. I led her to the sofa and retrieved the menu, handed it to her to let her choose what to eat. She picked lightly, obviously choosing the things that were the least costly.

I looked at the menu after her and selected a bowl of fruit salad, a cheese and cracker plate, and a plate of nachos to share. After Ranger ordered raw veggies and dip, I said, "I introduced Ranger to you already and told you that he was my husband, but I didn't tell you what he does. Ranger is a security specialist and is one of the best bodyguards in the business. He owns a small but growing security company that has its head office in Trenton, but has a satellite office in Miami and, after he purchases the company he's buying tomorrow, will also have satellite offices here in Atlanta as well as Boston, Raleigh, Nashville and Little Rock. I met him through work and am now a researcher in the company. We believe that you are in trouble. What's going on?"

"I'm not in trouble." Ranger and I just looked at her and didn't say anything until her lip started to wobble and tears came to her eyes.

"Tell me", I said softly.

She hitched in a breath. "I saw a murder."

"When?" said Ranger. His focus sharpened even more, but he was calm and controlled and his professionalism and assured competency must have swayed her into talking to us.

"I'm so scared", she whispered.

"We'll do everything we can to help you", I said.

"I had been seeing a man for the last month. Sergei Volki. Things had been going well, and a week ago we started sleeping together. I thought he was the most perfect man for me."

"What happened?"

She sighed. "The first few nights were extraordinarily spectacular." She paused and gulped. "But then, last night, he got out of bed in the middle of the night. I woke up when I heard a struggle, and I peeked out of the bedroom to see my boyfriend choking a man to death in front of me. I quickly threw on clothes and escaped out of the window as I heard my boyfriend telling his associate to clean up the trash, and I ran away as my boyfriend discovered me missing. He sicced his dogs on me, but I was able to escape the property before they attacked."

"Do you know for sure that they killed him?" I said.

"I didn't check for a pulse or anything", said Chastity, "but he looked pretty dead to me."

"Did you recognize the person who was killed?" said Ranger.

"No, I didn't."

"Was there one man with him, besides your boyfriend?"

"Two. I didn't recognize them. However, one of them was coming to see me after the performance this evening", she said. She swallowed hard. "He would have got me if you hadn't come along."

"The Ken-doll pretty boy", I said.

Chastity smiled fleetingly. "Exactly", she said.

"Did you call the police?" said Ranger.

"I haven't known where to go. I'm scared to go home. My boyfriend knows where I live. I'm scared to go anywhere. I rented a hotel and slept there last night. I paid in cash so my boyfriend couldn't find me, but I had to go to work tonight. They were counting on me, and the person that we have as our extra to fill in when someone was away has been dancing in the chorus line since Sandra twisted her back. I couldn't miss the performance. But tonight's performance was the first time that I was anyplace that was one of my usual haunts."

"What happened tonight that made you so stressed?" I said.

"I saw the Ken-doll killer in the audience and I just got so scared. Additionally, I was sent flowers before my performance. I kept the card." She took a florist's card out of her pocket and handed it to us. On it was written the message of "the next flowers after these will be funeral flowers."

"You need to tell the police", I said.

"They'll kill me if I go to the police."

Ranger shook his head. "This will never be over until you take steps to end it. They will always be after you unless you do something to stop them. The best thing that you can do is to go to the police." She looked down at the table, and she tensed when seconds later there was a knock at the door.

Ranger looked at us. "Both of you, please go into the bedroom while I accept room service, and don't come out until I tell you to."

I looked at Ranger. He looked far too focused and alert for the situation, and I thought that maybe he knew more than he was letting on. I wondered what his powers of observation had shown him. He looked at me and could see that I had questions. "We'll talk more about this in a minute", he said quietly.

I ushered Chastity into the bedroom and shut the door, and put my ear to the door to listen to what was going on outside in the main part of the suite. I could hear Ranger open the door and let in the person delivering the room service and hear the irritation in his voice as the person delivering the food commented on the amount that Ranger had ordered. I could also hear Ranger's easy response that he didn't know what he felt like and so had ordered a variety of foods to sample. After signing the food to his room and saying goodbye to the waiter and closing the door to the suite again, Ranger came to the door of the bedroom. He quietly said, "stand back, babe. I'm opening the door."

I moved away from the door and looked at him as he opened it. "How did you know that I was listening with my ear to the door?"

Ranger thought about smiling. "You are one of the most curious people I have ever met. You would never have been happy not knowing what was going on."

"I had to make sure you were safe."

Ranger's lips twitched. "Babe."

"The voice was, I think, the same as the man who was ordered to take the trash out last night", said Chastity.

"Are you sure?" I said.

"No", said Chastity. "I was panicking and getting dressed as fast as I could, and he didn't say much. However, I think he sounded like the same person."

"Okay", said Ranger. "I don't know if he was the same person that was ordered to take care of the dead guy last night, but he definitely was the person who was tailing us from the theater."

"There was someone tailing us from the theater?" I said. Apparently my powers of observation weren't nearly as good as Ranger's.

"When I realized that Chastity was upset about Ken-doll, I paid attention to what was happening around us. Ken-doll passed over the tailing of us to the man who delivered the food. I don't know what happened to the man who had been hired by the hotel to deliver the food, and in a second I'll phone down to security and ask them to check their feed. However, the man who delivered the food was definitely the man who was tailing us. If I hadn't seen him tailing us, I would have thought that something was up anyway."

"Why's that?" said Chastity.

"His uniform didn't fit him right and he was carrying at least one gun at the small of his back. I don't know whether he was carrying another gun at his ankle, but I wouldn't have put it past him."

"My God! He was really trying to kill me, wasn't he?"

"I'm afraid so", said Ranger. "However, we'll do everything we can to keep you safe."

Tears came to Chastity's eyes. "Thank you", she said.

Ranger patted her on the shoulder, before walking out into the main room again. "Let's eat", he said.


	5. Chapter 5

As Ranger lifted a carrot stick, he said, "I really think that it would be a good idea for the police to be involved."

"I'm scared."

"I know", said Ranger, "and if you were in Trenton I would put you in one of our safe houses with a bodyguard. However, the company I am buying doesn't have any safe houses, nor do they have a well of bodyguards to choose from. You'll have to put up with Steph and me instead, and I'd suggest that you stay in our suite overnight. I would strongly encourage you to agree to talk to a police officer. We can ask for the officer to come without a uniform on so that they blend in more and are less likely to be spotted." He looked at her. "Let me do my job, Chastity", he said softly.

Chastity nodded hesitantly.

Ranger quickly got up from the table before she could change her mind, went into the bedroom and shut the door.

I looked at Chastity and decided that it would be a good idea to change the subject. She looked like she was about to self-combust from the stress that she was under. "So what has happened to you since high school? We lost touch with each other when I started at Douglass College."

"I attended a vocational dance school and graduated three years later. However, there aren't a lot of jobs out there for dancers outside men's clubs, so I'd been going to auditions and teaching at a dance school in Trenton. I did that for four years and had a few small stints as a professional dancer during that time, when my mom was injured in a car accident. I had to take a second job, and I became a pole dancer at Kinky Boots in Hamilton Township. I did that for seven years and, although the money was good, it wasn't what I wanted to do with my life. I mean, I'd like to have kids and I can't imagine a kid feeling good about saying that their mother was a pole dancer. So when my mother died I went to more auditions and was accepted in the chorus line for Burlesque. The show has been on a long run here in Atlanta, but I heard that the show might soon be travelling around the States. My life, for the first time since I graduated from school, is finally working out." She swallowed hard. "Or, at least, it would be if these men weren't after me."

"We'll deal with that. Tell me about the dance school that you taught at. Do you ever go back and guest-teach?"

Chastity smiled. "No. While I am still friends with the woman who owns it, I haven't returned to guest-teach. To be honest, when my mom died I couldn't leave Trenton fast enough. I was thrilled to be accepted in Burlesque."

"You did a good job in it."

"Thanks." Chastity finished her minestrone soup and pushed her empty bowl aside. I moved the plate of nachos between us and started to pick at the plate. I was still quite full from my own dinner, but I knew that Chastity wouldn't eat any of the plate if I didn't have some, and she hadn't eaten much.

"What happened to you in the intervening years?" said Chastity.

"I graduated from college and married Dickie Orr."

"That sleaze ball?" said Chastity. "I remember being at a party with him when I was in high school and he made a pass at me. He didn't seem to understand the meaning of the word no."

"His character didn't change. I dated him for a year when I was nineteen, got engaged to him when I was twenty, and married him when I was twenty one, just two months after I graduated. I thought my life was working out for me."

"What happened?"

"Three months after we got married I found him boinking Joyce Barnhardt on our dining room table."

"That slut?" said Chastity. Joyce was someone that Chastity and I went to school with. She was the kind of bitch that all self-respecting people stayed away from. Her favorite hobby was stealing boyfriends and husbands. She had married well three times, and divorced even better. My theory was that the men would have given anything to get free from her. "I knew he was an asshole, but that is taking it to a whole new level. I'd want to be tested for STIs if I found out that he was so indiscriminate about who he slept with."

"I did. I flounced out of the house and returned home, and my dad and I went to get all my things from the place the next day. I was furious and hurt, and I lived at home until my grandmother moved in. By that time, I had a job as a lingerie buyer."

"Wow. And I thought my job as a pole dancer was bad."

I laughed. "It wasn't nearly as sleazy as it sounds. I took the job because, first of all, they were willing to hire me and, second of all, I thought I might get free samples. The job wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I mean, there weren't any free samples."

"That would suck."

"You feel my pain. However, since I was in charge of buying old lady underwear, I was just as glad. I lost my job about five or six years ago and could not find another until my cousin Vinnie at Vincent Plum Bail Bonds needed to hire someone to do filing. By the time I got there, the job had been taken but he had another job open as a bounty hunter. The rest, as they say, is history."

"How did you meet Ranger?"

"He was my mentor as a bounty hunter. I had no clue as to what I was doing, and he tried to teach me a few things to keep me safe. That was five years ago, and he's been watching my back and protecting me ever since."

"So how did you become a researcher?"

"To be a good bounty hunter, you have to be able to research. Without research, you'd never be able to find the felon. I had become quite proficient at researching using the search engines that Rangeman uses. Last May, my life was in danger and Ranger put me into witness protection. I was bored and his research department was backlogged. The researcher on staff hated doing research and wanted to be able to do patrol instead, so Ranger asked me to fill in as a researcher to stop me from being bored. I've been working there ever since."

"Are you still in danger?"

"Not at all. It's just that Ranger paid me for the work that I'd been doing, and he pays well. He lets me work flex hours so that I can still search for felons in my spare time, and he has let me grow the department. A year ago, the research desk was just me. I now have seven staff and we are looking to increase the staff size by about another six people. There is a huge demand for our services."

"How long have you been seeing Ranger?"

"I met him five years ago. I reconnected with Joe Morelli five years ago as well. Joe is now a detective on the Trenton Police Department. We saw each other romantically for four years mostly successfully and, although Joe is still one of my best friends, I realized that I liked him better as a friend than I did as a boyfriend. Last May, when I was in witness protection, I ended up shooting someone. Morelli couldn't handle it, and neither could I. I fell apart, but it was Ranger that put me back together. I realized through it all that Joe and I were better friends than lovers, and Ranger, who was my best friend, would be a good person for me to date. We started formally dating last July, moved in together at the end of September, and discovered I was pregnant at the beginning of November. We got engaged at the beginning of December, and got married three days ago. Our baby is due July fourth."

"You're on your honeymoon! I shouldn't be staying with you." She looked like she was about to cry.

"First of all, Ranger and I aren't taking a formal honeymoon. We are saving all our time off until the baby is born. So this is a working vacation and the only reason that we are in Atlanta instead of Trenton is because Ranger has that deal to sign tomorrow. Secondly, you aren't staying in our bedroom with us, so you don't have to worry about being with us on our honeymoon."

Chastity smiled.

"Seriously, don't worry about it. Ranger and I are happy to help."

"Is Ranger really good at what he does?"

"He is literally one of the best in the business. We have a variety of bodyguards on our staff, and the production houses use our services quite a lot whenever they are on the east coast. Our bodyguards are constantly in demand."

"What kind of training do you need to become a bodyguard?"

"All of our guards were former military. The director of the unit, in addition to being former military, is also formerly a member of the Secret Service. He is a fabulous bodyguard, but Ranger is better."

"How did Ranger become such a good bodyguard?"

"He's such an observant person that he is good at what he does. After all, neither you nor I realized that you were being tailed, did we?"

Chastity took another chip and crunched into it. "No", she said.

I hoped that I had been able to divert her mind from asking me more questions about Ranger. Because I knew, no matter what questions she asked, I would not be comfortable in answering them.

Luckily, Ranger emerged from the bedroom just then. "I talked to the Chief and explained the problem, and he is sending his best homicide detective out to talk to us. He said that all his detectives are plains-clothed detectives. I have talked to the detective and explained the problem. He said that he would come with his partner. I then talked to Security and asked them to check the feed. They found the bellhop passed out, naked, in a stairwell. The bellhop said that he didn't see the person who attacked him. He is currently in the Security office waiting to speak to the police when they come."

"When do you think that they'll be here?" I said.

"I expect them in another twenty minutes", said Ranger. "They will call when they arrive, before they get out of the car, to let us know they are coming up. Even so, I will want you to wait in the bedroom until I can confirm that they are who they say they are."

"That poor man", said Chastity. "He just came to work, never expecting that he would be attacked."

"That's true", said Ranger. "It's much like you. You were just sleeping, never expecting that Sergei would attack and kill a person."

Her eyes welled up with tears. "Thank you for believing me."

Ranger smiled slightly at her. "This is what we do", he said.


	6. Chapter 6

Chastity and I waited in the bedroom twenty minutes later as Ranger met the officers at the door. He checked their identification and ushered them in, and when they were seated around the dining table Ranger came to the bedroom and told us that it was safe for us to come out.

Ranger waited until Chastity and I walked out of the bedroom and, when the two officers and Chastity and I were seated around the table, Ranger stood behind me and watched what was going on. I would have suggested to him to move over one of the living room chairs so that he could sit with us, but I knew that he would prefer to stand while we were all sitting anyway. It was an unconscious way of asserting dominance, and most people wouldn't even realize that he was doing it. They would just unconsciously respond to it. However, I knew. Ranger would always assert dominance, whether that was through his direct gaze, his body language or his body position. He had told me once that it was important as a unit commander to always take command. He hadn't had too many people in his career ever question his authority, and he put it down to that unconscious assertion of dominance.

The lead detective introduced himself as Brent Dawson, and his partner as Samantha Lawry. He took out his notebook and started to take the particulars down. He waited while Chastity gave her explanation of what happened. "I'm sorry", said Brent. "I think you missed telling me your boyfriend's name."

"I'm sorry", said Chastity. "His name is Sergei Volki."

The detective looked at his partner briefly, and then turned back to us. "Are you sure?" he said.

"That's what he told me", said Chastity.

Apparently the name meant something to the police. The lead detective pulled out his phone and scrolled through several pages until he got to the one he wanted. He held his phone out. "Is this your boyfriend?" he said.

Chastity looked at the photo. "Yes."

Ranger and I looked at the photo. The man was average height, blond, blue-eyed, and had the beginnings of a beard. He wasn't particularly muscled, but he wasn't fat either. He was perfectly indistinguishable in every way. If you saw him in a crowd, he would be difficult to spot.

Having said that, I could see why Chastity was attracted to him. In the picture, you couldn't judge the magnetism of someone. If he was half as charismatic as Ranger, she wouldn't have stood a chance. Of course, if anyone was half as charismatic as Ranger, no one would stand a chance.

"Who is he?" said Ranger.

"Sergei Volki is a man who was born in a small town in Michigan. We suspect", said Samantha, "that he is involved in a number of criminal activities. We think he is behind an influx of drugs in the city, a string of murders, and a number of cases of extortion. However, people aren't talking. While we know of his involvement, we haven't been able to find anyone willing to report on it officially."

"My life is in danger, isn't it?" said Chastity.

"Your life was in danger from the minute you started to go out with him", said Brent. "It was just a matter of time."

"He seemed so nice." She swiped some tears away from her face.

"How likely is it that Sergei has officers on his payroll?" said Ranger. I looked back at Ranger, and he was watchful, assessing each of the people in the room.

Brent sighed. "The Chief called us in on this case outside the normal channels. Sam and I have been trying to get a lead on Sergei for a while, but we haven't been able to get anything to stick. Sometimes evidence goes missing. Sometimes the key witnesses recant their statements. Sometimes the people involved refuse to report it officially. They will tell us about it but, when they know they have to go up in front of a court, they refuse to tell us anything else. People are terrified of what he can do."

"Without your testimony", said Samantha, "we won't be able to stop him. We won't have him on charges on all his other activities, but if I can stop him by nailing him for this murder, he will be off the streets and the City of Atlanta will be safer."

"What steps do you intend to take to ensure Chastity's safety?" asked Ranger.

"We can put her into witness protection", said Brent. "The problem is that we are fairly certain that there is a leak in the department. Samantha and I have decided there has to be someone on the inside, just because every time we get close to getting a solid hook on him the people or evidence disappears. I'm worried that, if we put her into witness protection, her location will be leaked and she'll be in more danger than she would be if I didn't put her into protection. It's a real problem that we're having with the department right now."

"The Chief is worried about the possibility there is a leak as well", said Samantha. "That's why he went outside the usual channels to get us here tonight. Instead of sending the request down the hierarchy, he contacted us personally and had us come out. We just don't know where the leak is."

"It shouldn't take you long before the initial work is done. Can we take Chastity back to Trenton with us? We are scheduled to leave Atlanta on Sunday, so in three days."

Brent turned to Chastity. "Does your boyfriend know that you were raised in Trenton?"

"I never mentioned it", she said.

"Is there someone in Trenton that we could talk to that would be a good contact for us? We'd like to coordinate things from here, and it would be helpful for us to have a contact in the TPD to coordinate things from there. I'd also like to let the police know that you are coming and prepare them for potential problems."

"Absolutely", said Ranger with a smile. "Joe Morelli, a detective in the Crimes Against Persons division, is our contact. We have worked hand-in-hand with him on a number of cases."

"Joe, your ex-boyfriend?" said Chastity.

"We're good friends now", I said with a smile.

"Had the Chief ever worked with you in the past?" asked Brent. "He seemed to have a strong endorsement for you."

"I had a good conversation with him", said Ranger with an easy smile. "I haven't worked with him in the past, but I look forward to working with him more in the future."

"How did you even get to him?" asked Brent. "It was after hours, and he was at home."

Ranger smiled. "We have the most comprehensive search engine that I have ever seen at our fingertips. It is a proprietary piece of software, but we can find out a lot about a person based on the information we pull up."

"I thought his home phone and address were unlisted", said Brent.

"They are", said Samantha.

"Sam is the Chief's daughter", said Brent.

"That explains it", I said. "I was wondering how you knew that his contact information was unlisted."

Sam smiled, but looked at Ranger. "So how did you get his information? We need to know as that is a security risk for my father."

"I suspect it was through the IRS reports. The IRS collects a lot of information about people that you might not even be aware that they were collecting. I don't really pay attention to where the information comes from. I just know that it is collected with our search engine. As our research director, Steph would be better able to tell you where the information likely came from."

"The IRS is a good source of information", I said. "Medical records through insurance companies are another good source of contact information. On each claim form that you fill out, you are required to fill out your address and phone number. That information is recorded."

Sam nodded her head, but she still didn't look appeased.

"That's one of the reasons our software is proprietary", said Ranger. "We don't want to take the chance that the software gets into the wrong hands. If it did, felons would have just as much of an access to those hunting them as the police have at hunting the felons. We want us to have the advantage."

"This software was designed in-house, and it involved hundreds of hours in its creation. I personally haven't seen or heard of anything even close to as comprehensive as In-Spect", I said. "However, we are very careful as to who we research. We have a small but growing research department. We currently have seven people on staff, but we will be adding another six people as we centralize the research needs for Pearl Security."

"Can Pearl Security do the same things?" said Brent.

"No", said Ranger. "Pearl has all the same search engines that you do and their searches are as cursory as yours. With In-Spect, we can do much, much more, which is why we are centralizing the research department. The researchers don't need to live in the home city, but they do need to know how to use the software to its utmost. In addition to the software, we have a small team of talented research analysts. Some of our researchers are forensic accountants and financial analysts, who specialize in looking at companies. Other researchers are computer specialists and librarians and criminologists, who specialize in looking at individuals. I like to think that we have hired the best in the business."

"What is your background?" Samantha asked me.

I smiled. I hated that question. "I got into the department through a back door. For the past five years, I was a bounty hunter in Trenton. The secret to any apprehension is the development of a good capture plan, and the secret to a good capture plan is effective research. With the bonds office, I used all the standard search programs to find people. But through my work Ranger and I became friends and Ranger let me come into his office to use his program. This meant that I became familiar with everything that In-Spect could do. Last May my life was in danger and Ranger put me in witness protection by letting me stay in his apartment. While I was there, I was bored and his research desk was backlogged, so in appreciation for letting me stay with him I started doing research and clearing up his backlog. After I killed the man who was threatening me, I still continued to do research. I now work part time as Rangeman's research director and part-time as a bounty hunter."

"It actually works out to full-time as the research director", said Ranger, "and part-time as a bounty hunter. Although, to be honest, Steph hasn't done anything other than create capture plans for her apprehensions since she discovered that she was pregnant."

"I can see why that would be a level of danger that your spouse wouldn't want you having to face", said Samantha.

"I don't", said Ranger with an easy smile at me. I grinned back. I was still getting used to being thought of as his wife, and each time someone referred to me that way I got a little kick of pleasure.

"Who is Rangeman?" said Brent.

"We're a small but growing full-service security company that does a variety of functions." Ranger gave a brief overview of the different things we did. "We are buying Pearl Security tomorrow and are moving into the Atlanta area. We will be, of course, bringing our enhanced services to the area as well."

"What kinds of things can you find out through your research?" said Samantha. She seemed to still be impressed that we'd been able to find out information on her father.

I smiled. "We find out information from a number of areas, including medical, criminal, academic, professional and financial. This information is gathered and populates a standardized search form. In addition to the information gathered, the search form identifies where the information was found in case the researcher wants to look more in-depth at what was discovered, either to create a more accurate or comprehensive picture, or to find out the context of the information that was gathered. That is a cursory search and takes about half an hour to do, from search to analysis to report completion. However, for the various police forces that are our clients, this information is often not enough to provide a complete dossier. In that case, we look into each of the sources to pull as much data as we can. We go down rabbit holes and wade through data dumps and, at the end, come up with a comprehensive picture of the person that we are investigating. This takes, on average, five hours, but at the end of it the police have a great feel for the person, what they have been involved in and likely places the person could be found. I know both Trenton and Newark, the two places who have been using our services for the longest period of time, have found this assistance extremely valuable."

"In some cases", said Ranger, "the information gathered has identified the case to start off with. Just last week, Steph and I found out that my daughter was being stalked by a fifteen-year old boy. I had Cybersecurity trace the Facebook messages back to the source, and we were able to find out that the boy was actually a twenty-nine year old man. Then Steph took over. She spent eight hours looking into this man and his family, and found that he was a known pedophile who was hiding behind diplomatic immunity to traffic drugs up and down the eastern seaboard. We built a solid case against him. We then went to the Miami police with our findings, and they were able to build a case by finding eye witnesses for the drug dealing. That was on the weekend. We then talked to the Honduran government and shared our findings. The pedophile and his diplomat father are now on their way back to Honduras to stand trial for what they have done. Because of the help that we were able to give to the case, as well as the speed in which we were able to create the dossier on the man, Miami and my office are now hammering out a deal to have us do the research on their thorniest cases."

"Interesting", said Samantha.

"Would it be possible for you to create a dossier on Sergei?" said Brent.

Ranger. "We can, and Steph can do that work personally tomorrow." He turned to me. "You can use my computer, babe, while I am with Wes signing the papers."

I smiled at him. According to the doctor, I was allowed to work up to fifty hours, and I had only worked ten in the last week – eight to do Julie's research, and another two on Tuesday when we met with the Miami Police Department. Ranger hadn't wanted me to do any work at all over the four weeks to my next doctor's appointment though. Ranger said that it was necessary. I said that it was unreasonable. I worked a lot because the work was there, but I also worked a lot because I liked it. I told him that it would cause me more stress to not work than it would to work. Ranger didn't think much of that argument.

Ranger looked at me and sighed and shook his head. I grinned again. I was unhappy that Chastity was in a bad situation, but was happy that I'd be able to contribute something to help capture the bastard – and being able to do the research sure made my days more interesting.


	7. Chapter 7

I made up the pullout sofa bed in the living room while Chastity finished in the washroom for the evening. I was exhausted, and I couldn't imagine how much more tired Ranger was. He hadn't had the benefit of a two-and-a-half hour nap that afternoon.

Ranger had put the leftover food in the refrigerator, and as Chastity got out of the bathroom he said, "in the morning, when I get up I'll go down to the hotel gym and work out for a while and let you sleep."

"Do you like to get up early?" said Chastity.

Ranger nodded.

Chastity smiled. "The early bird gets the worm?"

I smiled. "But the second mouse gets the cheese", I said. "You should sleep in."

Ranger laughed, but I wasn't sure if he was laughing at the turn of expression or the thought of sleeping in.

"But the mouse has to climb over a dead mouse to get to it, so I don't know if your analogy is good", said Chastity.

"You do what you have to do", I said. "Personally, if there is cheese involved, I would climb over any dead mouse."

Ranger laughed. In the past week, I had been craving cheese and he knew it. When we were in Miami, he had bought me a wheel of Laughing Cow cheese, and I ate through all the wedges in the two days we were in Miami. It was, in fact, why I had ordered a cheese and cracker plate for our snacks. At the time I knew that, if we hadn't eaten the cheese and crackers before bed, I would definitely eat them when I got up.

We said goodnight to Chastity and went into the bedroom and shut the door. "I'm sorry about torpedoing our honeymoon", I said softly as Ranger changed out of his clothes into some sleep pants and a t-shirt. I changed out of my dress into a maternity nightie, glad that I had included one when I was packing. With not having any sleepwear that I considered sexy, I had seriously considered not bringing any nightwear at all.

Ranger smiled. "Your desire to help people is one of the things I love about you." He laughed. "I don't mind, babe. Besides, it makes me feel better about designating our honeymoon as a work holiday." After we had set our plans to have a working holiday, Ranger had begun to feel very guilty for arranging to work on our honeymoon. I had told him that I didn't mind and that, if he was taking holidays, I'd prefer for him to take them after the baby was born. He felt very guilty anyway.

I smiled. "What will we do with Chastity when we get back to Trenton?"

"I was thinking that we'd put her in your apartment", said Ranger. "It's a safe place, and that is important. I don't have any bodyguards available to look after her. With the Oscars being held soon, all our bodyguards have already been assigned people to protect."

"Will she be safe in the apartment without a bodyguard?"

Ranger nodded. "I think so. If Sergei doesn't know that she was raised in Trenton and if we take a private plane back to Atlanta she won't be on any of the plane manifests, she will have, to all intents and purposes, disappeared." We walked into the bathroom and Ranger brushed his teeth.

"And Sergei doesn't have access to In-Spect", I said as he spat.

"No. I doubt he has access to any other standard search engine either, but in case he does I'll give Chastity some cash so that she doesn't have to use her credit card when she is in Trenton, and I'll instruct her that, if she wants to work, it needs to be an all-cash deal. I'll also help her go to a number of banks around the city here so that she can pull out as much cash as she can get from her bank accounts before we leave. Rangeman will take care of her."

"The private plane, the living expenses...it will be quite costly for Rangeman to protect Chastity." I put some toothpaste on my brush, wet it, and proceeded to brush my teeth.

"It's the right thing to do, babe. Besides, I'll work out a deal with the Chief for some of those expenses to be reimbursed. Yes, we won't have all the expenses covered. However, we'll have some of them covered."

I spat in the sink, rinsed my mouth, and dried my face on the towel. I looked at him. "I've said it before and I'll say it again. You are a good man, Ranger Manoso, and I am proud to be married to you."

Ranger smiled. "You are a good woman as well", said Ranger. "There aren't too many women who would interrupt their honeymoon to help a friend in need, especially a friend they hadn't seen in over ten years." He captured me in a hug and kissed me, and when I nuzzled his shoulder and yawned, he said, "you need sleep, babe. I feel bad that I've kept you up so long."

"You didn't keep me up. Circumstances kept me up. I can sleep in tomorrow."

"I won't set an alarm for myself just so that I know that you won't wake up the same as you might if I did. I want you to sleep in late tomorrow. After all, it is now one in the morning, and if you just get eight hours of sleep you'll be getting up at nine…and that is if you are only getting eight hours. I'd like to see you get nine or ten."

"What time is your meeting with Wes?"

"I'm meeting him at eleven-thirty. We are having lunch together to talk about the changes that I want to make to the company, and signing the paperwork after our lunch. Emmy is flying down for the meeting." Emmy was one of our corporate lawyers, and was the Director of Legal Services. She was a talented lawyer who had saved our bacon a few times.

"Has she had a chance to review the revised documents?" She had reviewed the initial sale agreement papers and generally thought that the agreement looked good. She did, however, have a couple of recommendations for things that she thought needed to be tweaked, and Ranger had requested the changes.

"She did, and she agreed with the final version. She thought it was a fair agreement that would be a good buy for Rangeman. She also liked the loan agreement." Wes owned Pearl Security outright, but Ranger didn't have enough capital to buy the company outright. The company was worth two hundred million after all, and that was a huge amount of money to come up with. Wes, in agreeing to sell the company to Ranger, had also agreed to carry the loan for the purchase. Ranger could have gone through the bank, but Wes's terms were better. Even more appealing, Wes wouldn't charge Ranger a penalty if he paid the loan back early.

From what I understood, Wes was very happy that Ranger was buying his company. He was giving it to us for the low price of two hundred million, a price that had taken me aback but one that Ranger assured me was a good deal. Since Pearl Security earned about a hundred million a year in revenues, I guess I could see his point. It would be a huge book of business that the sale was bringing to Rangeman.

Like Ranger with Rangeman, Wes regarded Pearl Security as his baby. He wanted to retire, but he didn't want to hand over care of his baby to just anyone. He knew that Ranger would treat his company well, would grow his company, and would conduct business in an honorable fashion. Wes and Ranger had worked together in the past successfully. They had co-owned their company and the only reason they had split up was because they couldn't agree as to where their head office would be. Wes had wanted it in Atlanta. Ranger had wanted it in Trenton. Neither was willing to budge, yet they had been finding it hard having two head offices. It was an amicable split and they remained friends to this day.

Because they were still friends and because they had a lot of respect for the other person, offering Pearl Security to Ranger was a natural move on Wes's part. It came at a good time. Ranger was in the process of figuring out what he was going to do about providing services in cities other than Trenton, and had been talking with me and his Executive Vice-President about the different opportunities that he had in front of him to expand. I had asked Ranger if we could afford to buy out Wes. After all, he had just bought two parcels of land and was building another seven-story tower on one of them. His response was that we couldn't afford not to. I could see his point.

Depending upon how this purchase and the integration of the two companies went, I could see that Rangeman would grow to be a large company. There weren't many full-service security companies in the US that provided the services that our company provided, but those that were had grown astronomically in a short period of time. People were more security conscious than they had been in the past, and were more worried about their personal security and the security of their possessions. It was a sad comment on our social structure that resulted in a high demand for our services. However, Rangeman was getting known for the quality of their work throughout the US, and Ranger had developed working relationships with many other security company CEOs. Periodically, Rangeman was subcontracted by those CEOs to provide support to their operations.

Ranger was in the position that he had to decide whether he was going to grow or stay where he was. He could hold steady and do quite well in the company. He had a solid group of clients that would bring in a respectable income. However, Ranger's inclination was to grow the company. There was so much more that he wanted to do and he could only do it if he chose to grow and develop. He wanted to see the potential of the company realized.

Wes, I think, felt the same. However, he realized that he wasn't the right person to take his company and grow it successfully. He had expanded so that he had five locations, but the company was getting too unwieldy to manage without making significant changes – and he didn't know what changes needed to be made. Ranger, however, was a born businessman. He knew instinctively what changes needed to be made and what needed to be done to stabilize its existing growth and to expand further. Wes knew it and wanted his company to grow and develop into something amazing – and he believed that Ranger could do that. I personally thought that he couldn't have found anyone better for taking over his reins.

Wes had started his company two years before he met Ranger, and Rangeman had been just six months old. The two of them had clicked. Wes was a former police officer who had taken an early retirement from the force, but had spent enough time walking his beat to know the stresses that citizens were under and the need for effective security systems for private individuals and businesses. While Ranger specialized in electronic surveillance systems, Wes specialized in training and providing security guards. They decided that a marriage between the two companies would be ideal. That marriage allowed them to pool their resources and grow into the companies they were today. They split two years after they joined forces, but had learned from each other and developed their portfolio of services together. Their respect and friendship, despite their split, remained strong.

However, Wes was now at a retirement age and he wanted to cash out and invest his retirement income. His wife was terminally ill, and he wanted to spend their last days together without worrying about the business. I think Wes was just as excited about the sale of Pearl Security as Ranger was about the purchase.

I settled down with Ranger in bed. "Have a good sleep, babe", he said. He rubbed my stomach gently. "Have a good sleep, peanut", he said. We had been calling her that ever since we had seen her on the first ultrasound. At the time, she didn't have arms or legs and had, in fact, looked like a peanut. I suspected that it was a name that would stick. My grandmother was horrified and said that children shouldn't be named after foodstuffs. She didn't agree with calling children anything other than their name or 'dear'. I personally thought 'peanut' was cute.

He snaked his hand up under my nightie until he was holding my breast, and he sighed and kissed me on the back of my head. "I love you, babe."

"Love you too", I said. I smiled and shut my eyes, and seconds later I was asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

I woke up briefly when Ranger got up the next morning. The sun was just coming up, which at that time of the year meant that it was about quarter after seven. Ranger had slept in as well. I smiled at him as he rummaged around and got dressed, but by the time he was walking out the door of the suite I was back to sleep again.

At eight-thirty, there was a knock on the door to our hotel suite. The sound woke me up, and I sat up and blearily wiped the sleep out of my eyes. I would have gone back to sleep, but then I heard Chastity walk over to the door. As she put her hand on the doorknob, I yelled 'no' and vaulted from the bed.

I was too late though. By the time I had made it to the living room, two men were holding Chastity between them. One of the men was the Ken-doll that had been after her at the theater. The other was someone that I wasn't familiar with, but I assumed was the man who had been following us from the theater. Judging by how ill-fitting his hotel uniform was, I suspected he was the person who had delivered the room service the night before.

"Who are you?" I asked. I looked at them directly and memorized their features in case I had the chance to describe them to the police. I also looked at them directly to try to assert dominance. It seemed to work for Ranger, and I thought I'd try it myself.

"We're nobody if you do as we say. We're your worst nightmare if you don't."

I fumbled with my watch for a moment as I pretended to look at the time. Instead of looking at the time, however, I pressed the panic button.

"What do you want me to do?" I said. I prayed that Rangeman would get the SOS. I didn't know if it worked so far from home. It hadn't even occurred to me to ask.

The Ken-doll looked at the other assailant. "Sergei didn't tell us to bring any other people with Chastity. He just said to bring her."

"What do you want with her?" I said. I hoped that Ranger was getting the message that I was in trouble, and I thought that it would be a good idea if I kept the men talking to give Ranger a chance to respond to the alert.

"She ran off on her boyfriend the other night, and her boyfriend wants to reassure himself that she's okay."

"And he needs to send out men with guns to do that?"

"There are a number of dangers to a lone female in Atlanta. Our boss would be devastated if something happened to his girlfriend."

"Uh-hunh", I said. "Maybe your boss needs to take a step back. If and when Chastity is ready to talk to him, she will talk to him. That's the way it works. Otherwise it is considered harassment and is a chargeable offence."

"I think we should take the pregnant one as well", said the non-Ken doll.

"Oh, no", I said. "I just got up and I don't go anywhere without having a shower first. Some food would also be good. The baby needs to be fed."

"Just shoot her and grab the bitch", said the Ken-doll.

"What are your names?" I said.

"What does it matter to you?"

"If I'm going to be killed, if you are going to murder my baby, I think I deserve to know your name. It's not like it will matter. If I'm going to die, I won't be able to identify you."

"She has a point", said the Ken-doll to the other one. "I'm Sven."

"And I'm Ronald McDonald", said the other one. I tried not to laugh. I didn't want to tell him that I had already put Ronald McDonald behind bars. He had been a man after my ex-husband, and my ex was such a jerk that I almost gave Dickie to him. However, when Ronald had threatened me and blew up my car – twice – I decided to turn him in instead.

"Your hair has changed color and gotten remarkably straighter", I said. I clasped my hands together to try to still their shaking.

Sven let out a snort. "I think we should take her with us", he said. "She's funny."

Ronald sighed. "Okay. Let's get out of here."

"I'm in my nightie", I said. "Don't you think that someone will notice me walking through the hotel in my nightie?"

"You're right. Maybe it would be better for us just to shoot her", said Sven.

"Nightie it is", I said. "But I'm just telling you that I will look conspicuous. People will notice me wearing my nightie. And it will feel odd walking around without underwear on. Can Chastity and I at least put on shoes?"

Ronald sighed again, and Sven nodded his head.

"Thank God", I said. "I used to walk around outside without shoes on when I was a kid, but then I stepped in doggie doo-doo and I never lived that one down. I have hated going outside without wearing shoes ever since. Even flip-flops are good and you can hardly consider those to be shoes. But at least if you stepped in doggie doo-doo your feet would be protected. Although, I guess, it isn't that great protection because the doo-doo would squeeze up and over the sides, wouldn't it, and you'd still be left with the problem of not wanting to walk in the house with your dirty shoes. But then you'd have the additional problem of dirty feet as well as dirty shoes, and you wouldn't be able to walk around in the house then either." I was rambling because I was terrified, but I also wanted to take as long as I could before we left the suite, just in case Ranger was coming.

"Shut up", said Sven. He waved his gun around.

"I'm shutting it", I said as I walked away and slipped my shoes on. I made the motion of zipping my lips and throwing away the key.

I heard a whimper, and I turned to see Chastity standing with a gun to her head. "Just trying to convince you to hurry up", said Ronald.

"I'm hurrying", I said. I turned and walked out of the bedroom, and grabbed my purse at the same time. I figured that, if for some reason Rangeman was having trouble tracking my watch, I had another chance of them tracking my purse. I slipped my phone into my purse. If they had trouble tracking the transmitter in my purse, they definitely would be able to track my phone.

We left the suite just as Ranger exited the elevator. He looked still and focused and alert, and he was standing on the balls of his feet ready to fight. I could tell by the expression on his face that he was aware that I had enacted the panic alarm. He put his phone into his pocket as Ronald grabbed me and moved me in front of him. He dug a gun into the small of my back.

I could tell that Ranger suspected that I was being held against my will. He knew that, without the potential of one or both of us being killed, I would have already fought my way out of the situation. He had trained me well, and he knew that I would enact that training if I could.

Ranger smiled at us. "Did the ladies order room service again?" he said to the men. He looked at me. "Did you order anything for me, babe?"

I smiled. "I didn't know you wanted anything, and I didn't want it to be cold when you got back from your workout."

"A shower would be good beforehand anyway. I need to wash the stink away."

"Do you want me to help?" I wasn't asking Ranger if I could literally help him. I knew that, by him saying that he needed to wash the stink away, he meant that he was going to wipe the floor with the men's broken carcasses, and by me asking if he wanted help I was asking whether he wanted me to fight back or figuratively hold his phone and stand at the side.

"I can do it myself", he said. As he eased closer to us and maneuvered himself into a better position, he smiled at Chastity. "Did you have a good sleep? Did you have a chance to get caught up at all?" She shook her head in terror.

Ranger moved between us and Ronald kept me between Ranger and him. The gun was still hidden at my back, and I could tell that Ranger knew that. He leaned forward and gave me a kiss. "Drop", he whispered quietly against my lips, and he eased back again.

I moved suddenly and crouched down on the ground, and jostled Ronald's gun hand as I did. The gun went off and narrowly missed hitting Ranger's hip.

Things happened very fast from that point on, and things were very confusing. I think what happened was that Ranger karate-chopped Ronald's hand with such force that Ronald let go of his gun. Ranger kicked the gun aside, then slammed the man on his temple. Ronald dropped to the ground, and I had enough self-possession to creep over and pick up the gun.

Ranger turned to Chastity and Sven. Sven was looking a little panicky, and his hand holding the gun was more visible than Ronald's had been.

One of the other hotel guests poked their head out in the corridor. He picked up the complimentary paper and glared at the five of us. "Can you keep it down? My wife is trying to sleep."

"Sorry", I said.

He looked at the five of us in the hall again. "Did you need help? That man must have had a good night last night, to be passed out this morning", he said as he nodded at Ronald.

Ranger smiled. "It happens to the best of us."

The man nodded and picked up his paper, looked at the five of us again, then threw the paper into Sven's face. Ranger sprang forward and twisted the gun out of Sven's hand, threw it to the man, and grabbed hold of Sven and pressed on his carotid arteries. Seconds later, Sven dropped at our feet.

Ranger turned to the man. "Do you still carry a few pairs of cuffs with you?"

Wes laughed. "Always. It's always great to see you in action, Ranger. Look after these guys while I retrieve the cuffs."

"You know each other?" I said in surprise.

Ranger laughed. "Wes sent a text to me this morning that said that he had decided to surprise his wife with a few days in the hotel. His wife is supposed to be going to the spa while we sign our paperwork. He thought we might be able to have breakfast together. He said that he and his wife didn't want to wait until tonight to meet you."

Wes came back to the hallway with two pairs of cuffs. "Ranger and I were talking on the phone when he was coming up the elevator and he got notice that you had tripped the panic button. I was listening at the door to judge when there would be a good time for me to join in the fun."

Ranger took a set of cuffs from Wes and cuffed Sven while Wes cuffed Ronald. When Wes was finished, he came over to me. "It's nice to meet you, Stephanie. I have heard a lot about you."

I shook his hand and smiled. "Hmm. That sounds ominous", I said.

Wes laughed. "It's all good." He turned to Chastity. "You're safe now, ma'am."

"But Ranger was almost shot!"

Wes looked at Ranger, and then looked back at her. "But he wasn't, and that's the key point."

"If I had a dollar for the number of times that I had almost been shot, I'd be rich", said Ranger. "It doesn't matter if you are almost shot. It only matters if you are. Near misses aren't important. What is important is that it was a miss."

"You've almost been shot before?" said Chastity.

"I've been shot as well", said Ranger. "Unfortunately, it's a job hazard."

"Ranger is pretty good at avoiding the bullets", said Wes. "He always has been."

Ronald started to stir as Ranger pulled out his phone and called Brent and Samantha. He told them that we had caught two of the people involved in the case, and he arranged to meet them in our suite. "Should we drag them into our suite?" I said. My hands were shaking, and I really wanted to change into some clothes. Even more, I wanted a shower and to pretend that nothing had happened. I thought I was doing a good job at playing it cool, but Ranger had almost gotten shot and I wouldn't recover easily. I could very much understand Ranger's anxious reaction to me being in danger. I would want to stay as close as I could to Ranger today as well. "I was just thinking that I'd like a shower, I know that Ranger would like a shower, and the officers won't be here for another fifteen minutes at least."

"That's true", said Ranger. "It will do good things for me if you change out of your nightgown."

I smiled suddenly. "Just be glad I packed a nightgown. I could have been sleeping with nothing on."

Ranger looked at me and thought about smiling. "Was that an option?" he said.


	9. Chapter 9

Wes and Ranger each carried a man into our suite, and Ranger and I left Wes to watch over the men as we had a quick shower. I stripped out of my nightie as Ranger took off his workout gear, and Ranger started the shower. He looked at the enclosure and looked at me. His lips quirked up. "Looks like it will be a tight fit, babe", he said.

"I can wait, if you want to shower first."

"No way. I need to feel your skin and reassure myself that you are alright. I still haven't settled after seeing you being held at gunpoint. It brought back memories of when you were held at gunpoint during the bank robbery."

"I could have died when the gun went off and I realized how close you were to the bullet."

"I could have died when I realized that there was a gun in your back. I couldn't cope if anything bad happened to you, babe."

"I feel exactly the same way. I love you, and without you I wouldn't want to go on."

Ranger dropped a kiss on my lips and ushered me inside the shower. He tenderly washed my body and hair, and I washed his. We didn't linger as long as we would have liked. The officers would soon be there, after all. However, I couldn't speak for Ranger, but I knew that I felt more settled after being able to inspect Ranger's body and know that he was safe and unharmed.

The shower was short, but the tenderness that Ranger showed me was grounding. I could only hope that Ranger felt the same. When we had dried off, I pulled my wet hair back into a ponytail and slicked on some mascara and tinted lip balm while Ranger shaved. After finishing our preparations, we quickly got dressed and left the bedroom. As we walked into the dining room, there was a knock on the door. Wes answered it and looked at Ranger after Brent and Samantha showed their credentials. Ranger nodded, and Wes let the two officers into the suite.

"Did you get a chance to let Lizzie know what was going on?" said Ranger. Lizzie was Wes's wife.

"I told her when I was retrieving the cuffs, but I wouldn't mind taking a minute just to stick my head into my suite to let her know that everyone is okay."

Ranger gave Wes his suite key so that he could let himself back into the suite afterwards, then turned to the officers. "How are you?" he said.

"Better than we were last night", said Brent. "Who do you have here for us?"

Ranger looked at me.

"The blond one who looks like a Ken doll is Sven. He didn't give his last name. The other one said that his name is Ronald McDonald, but I don't know if he was just pulling my leg. After all, who would name their child Ronald McDonald?"

"My parents", groaned Ronald. "I try to go by the name of Ron simply because the name Ronald McDonald brings up the image of someone wearing yellow and red, and having bright red hair."

"At least your name isn't Cole", I said. I smiled. I had met someone a couple of months ago whose name was Cole McDonald. He did not, however, own a farm. I know. I'd asked.

Ronald groaned again. "That's my middle name."

I stared at him in shock. "Your parents really hated you, didn't they?" I said.

Sven snorted out a laugh. "At least they weren't like my parents. My name is Sven Shaw. Try saying that fast ten times. Makes me sound like something that is carved in whale bones."

"Carved in whale bones?" said Chastity in confusion.

"Scrimshaw", I said. I was glad that I remembered what it was called and knew that I wouldn't have remembered that if it wasn't for the fact that Ranger and I had taken Julie and her parents to the science center the weekend before.

"So we have two men with unfortunate names", said Brent. "What were you doing here?"

I related to the detective what had happened.

They turned to Chastity. "What were you doing opening the door? You knew that they were after you."

Chastity turned red. "They said they were from room service, and I thought Ranger had ordered breakfast for Steph and me. I was hungry."

"That's why I ordered extras last night", I said. "I knew that we might need some snacks until we were ready to order breakfast by room service."

"Yes, but that was old food", said Chastity. "It wasn't fresh."

I looked at her in disgust.

"What were you doing while Ms. Knott was opening the door?" said Samantha to me.

I sighed. "I was sleeping", I said.

"So let me reiterate things to make sure I have them right", said Brent. "Ranger went down to the gym to work out and left the two of you sleeping. While he was gone, Chastity woke up and was hungry and refused to eat the food that was here and so, when there was a knock on the door and the person yelled out 'room service', she opened the door. The sound of the door opening woke up Stephanie and she came out of the bedroom."

"Close", I said. "I also heard the knock and that's what woke me. I called out to Chastity not to answer the door just as Chastity opened the door. By the time I walked out to the living room, Sven had Chastity restrained and had a gun pointed at her."

"Okay, so you decided to go with Sven and Ron?"

"I did, but only because they threatened to kill me if I didn't go. I didn't want that to happen." I smiled. "Besides, I didn't think Chastity should have all the fun."

"Fun! I have never been so terrified in my life!" said Chastity.

I laughed. I didn't have the heart to tell her that what she'd gone through wasn't that bad. I mean, we weren't actually kidnapped, nobody was hurt, and the bad guys had been captured.

"So you left the suite", said Samantha.

"I wanted to change before I left, but they didn't want to give me time to change out of my nightie", I said. "I was just glad that I wasn't wearing anything revealing. It would have been embarrassing if I had been wearing a negligee. Of course, I don't think they make negligees in maternity sizes."

Ranger thought about smiling. "Too bad", he said.

Wes walked into the suite again, and Ranger smiled at him.

"So you left the suite and, when you walked down the hall and were almost at the elevator, Ranger arrived in the elevator. He disarmed Ron and knocked him out and then Wes stuck his head out the door of the suite. He threw the paper into Sven's face, at which point Ranger disarmed him and knocked him out."

"Yes", I said. "And then Wes and Ranger carried them into the suite and Ranger and I had a shower while we waited for you and I finally got out of my nightie."

"It was good timing for Ranger to be coming up from the gym", said Brent. He turned to the two men. "Who hired you to capture Chastity?"

"How do you know that we didn't want to capture her ourselves?" asked Sven.

Brent looked at him. "I don't think that you're behind this, which is good for you. However, I want to arrest the person responsible, and I will go to the DA to cut a deal for the first person out of the two of you who tells me everything I need to know. Think about that." He turned to Samantha. "Let's take these guys in, and when we get to the station I'll take one interrogation room while you take the other, and after we talk to them we'll compare notes."

"Absolutely", said Samantha. She turned to Wes and Ranger and Chastity and me. "I'll be back later with witness statements typed up for you to sign. Will you be around?"

"Call us", said Ranger, "before you come. We'll be around somewhere, and we can pinpoint our location better when we know better your arrival time."

"Fair enough", said Brent. He hauled Sven to his feet, and Samantha pulled Ron to his.

"I'll see you later", said Samantha.


	10. Chapter 10

After Brent and Samantha left with the two would-be kidnappers, Ranger turned to Wes. "Would you and your wife be interested in having breakfast with us?"

Wes smiled. "Lizzie was having a shower when I went in, so I'm sure she'll be ready soon. We'd love to have breakfast with you. I'll just go wait for her in my suite, and we'll be back in a few minutes."

I pulled out the leftover food from the night before and put it on the table. As Wes left, Chastity looked at Ranger. "I don't understand how you knew that we were in trouble."

Ranger smiled. "Sometimes coincidences are wondrous things."

"Wes mentioned something about a panic button?" she said.

I took a slice of cheese from the plate and put it on top of a cracker. "I'm not sure what Wes was talking about", I said. "I was wearing my nightie. How would I ever be able to trigger a panic button? It's not like I had pockets to hide a transmitter in." I popped the cracker into my mouth and sighed with pleasure. I really liked cheese.

Chastity looked disheartened. "I thought, if Steph had a panic button, that maybe I could get one as well and then I'd be able to call for help when I needed it."

"I know", said Ranger. "It would be handy if my company provided that sort of service. It would certainly offer people an enhanced level of security."

I tried not to smile. Ranger did provide that service, but it was very hush-hush. He didn't advertise it. Besides for a few select people on staff – namely Ranger, Tank and me – and a few very wealthy clients who paid a _lot_ of money for the service, it was not a service Rangeman offered. It would be too hard to monitor otherwise.

We intended to get a tracking watch for Amelia as well. Our baby would be too young to wear a tracking device, but since the baby would rarely be away from Amelia or Ranger or me, the point was probably moot. I hoped. Tia would be too little for a watch, and we'd just have to trust that she would be okay. I know that trust wouldn't come easily for me, and it definitely wouldn't come easily for Ranger. As Ranger said once, he'll be constantly imagining bad things happening to Tia and, unfortunately, with working in the sector we work in, our imaginations were all too good.

"What's going to happen to me?" said Chastity.

"That's easy", said Ranger. "Today I'm going to cancel Steph's and my plane tickets and charter a plane to take us back to Trenton. By travelling that way, your name won't be on any of the plane manifests. Before we go, I'll take you around Atlanta to empty out your bank accounts. As of now, you can't use credit cards or your debit card any longer. When we get to Trenton, you'll stay in Steph's old apartment. Steph will take you shopping so that you can buy some clothing. If you decide to work while you are in Trenton, you will need to be paid in cash. Do nothing that can be traced. You are welcome to stay in Steph's apartment until Sergei's trial."

She looked panicked. "What about my job?"

"You'll have to leave your job", said Ranger. "That is very important. If you want to live, you have to quit effective immediately. Similarly, while Sven and Ron are in jail, we are going to move hotels to another location just so that it is less likely that you'll be traced. If we hadn't been so tired, I would have done that last night."

"Are we still going home on Sunday?" I said.

"That's the plan", said Ranger. "In the meantime, I'll lend you my computer so that you can access the company server remotely." He opened up his computer and accessed the internet, and minutes later was calling another hotel. He made a booking with an early check-in, and hung up the phone. "The place that I have booked is not a luxury hotel. It is practical and hopefully comfortable and ideally suited to families, but it isn't luxurious. It will be a good place for us to hide."

"They won't be able to find me?" said Chastity.

"I'm not going to lie and say unequivocally that they won't be able to find you. However, it would be pretty hard. If I was a person searching for you and I found out that we were no longer staying at the Four Seasons, I might check all the other luxury hotels first. I'm hoping when they do check and don't find you that they give up. Somehow I don't suspect that it will be that easy. When they finish checking the hotels, they'll check for rental cars, train tickets and air passages to see if you have left town. Of course, when we do leave town your transport out won't be recorded."

"Do you think Wes would mind driving us to our new hotel later today?" I said.

Ranger smiled. "I think he would be insulted if we didn't ask. After all, he better than anyone else would understand the security measures that we are taking."

Wes knocked on the door, and Ranger answered and kissed a woman on the cheek as they came in. He turned to me and introduced Lizzie. "How are you doing?" he said to Lizzie after the introductions had been made.

"Been better, but this is a good day so I'm not complaining."

Ranger smiled. "I'm glad you're having a better day."

"I'm just so happy that Wes is selling Pearl Security. When he started it, it was mainly to keep him busy and out of my hair in his retirement. He was always around the house before, and it drove me crazy. I worked from home myself, so having a person in the house when I was trying to get something done just about killed me. It was much better for our marriage for Wes to have a job. But the job is now too much. Instead of Wes having a job, the job has Wes, and I have to admit that I am very jealous of the time the job has taken from Wes and me. Growing a company like that is for the young."

Ranger thought about smiling. "I don't know if I am classified as young, but I definitely can tell you that I will do the best job I can at growing your company."

"It's not my company", said Lizzie.

Ranger's lips quirked up. "I wouldn't say that", he said. "You put just as much into the company as Wes did. Without your encouragement, Wes wouldn't have had a company."

Lizzie smiled.

"Are we going to order breakfast?" said Chastity. "I'm starving."

"Help yourself to food while you wait", I said. I took another cracker and added another slice of cheese and, when Chastity was finished looking at the menu, quickly selected an order of blueberry pancakes with syrup. The syrup wouldn't be as good as the coconut cream sauce that Ranger served with pancakes at home, but it would be good too. At least the syrup was supposed to be real maple syrup rather than the imitation stuff, and there was a side of bacon. Ranger ordered ham and eggs. He didn't agree with eating bacon. I thought he was nuts. Bacon, I thought, was one of God's pleasures and should be eaten as frequently as possible.

"So here's the plan", said Ranger. He told Wes and Lizzie what we'd decided to do.

Wes nodded his head. "I'll drive you to your new hotel. You'll have to forgive me if I don't change hotels with you. This is supposed to be another honeymoon for the two of us, and staying at a family hotel doesn't scream honeymoon to me. We had enough of staying at family hotels when the kids were growing up."

"I understand", said Ranger. "Besides, you promised Lizzie time at the spa."

Wes smiled and looked at his wife with a soft expression on his face. "I did", he said.

Lizzie smiled. "I'm going to make myself look beautiful for Wes."

"You already are", said Wes.

Lizzie groaned. "Wes, you sound sappy."

Wes smiled. "Around you I feel it."

"I don't think I should have to give up my job", said Chastity. "If I do, I'll never get a job dancing professionally again."

I looked at Wes, and apparently he could hide his emotions as well as Ranger could. Both of them were looking at Chastity with poker faces, but I knew Ranger's expressions well enough to be able to tell that he was amazed at her stupidity. I looked at Lizzie, and she was looking at Chastity with open-mouthed shock. I could understand everyone's reaction.

"Chastity", I said, "Sergei will be watching your work in the hopes that you show up. We got lucky this time. By fluke, Ranger got to us and was able to deal with the threats before we were kidnapped, and he was able to do it without bloodshed. If he had been standing a foot to his left, however, he would have been shot. If he had been five minutes later, we would have been gone. Is that what you want? Did you want to be taken? Did you want someone shot and potentially killed? Because next time Sergei might decide that it is too much trouble to take you and he might just have you assassinated instead. Instead of that man getting choked, it might be you."

Chastity looked at me with tears running down her face. "It's not fair of you to try to scare me", she said.

"I'm not trying to scare you. I just want you to understand the seriousness of the situation you are in, and wanting to go back and dance in your show again shows me that you don't understand that. So many things could have gone wrong this morning that, for some reason, didn't. Sven and Ron could have killed you when you opened the door rather than try to take you back to Sergei. They could have shot me so that there weren't any witnesses. Ranger might not have been coming up to the suite. Ranger might have been shot. Wes might not have been staying next door and wouldn't have been able to help you. Sven or Ron might have been skilled in martial arts and able to overcome Ranger." Ranger choked. "Okay, so that last one might not have happened. However, any one of those other things could have happened and, if they had, the outcome of this morning would not have been as cheery. Ranger was serious when he said that, if you want to live, you'll have to quit dancing in Burlesque, effective immediately."

"But what do I tell them?"

"As little as possible", said Ranger. "Remember that, whatever you tell them, they will likely tell Sergei and his friends. They may be tortured for the information, but they will likely tell Sergei and his flunkies."

Chastity flushed.

"What did you do?" I said.

Chastity looked down at the ground.

"Chastity?" I said.

"I already talked to the person in charge of the show", she said. "He's a friend of mine, and he won't sell me out. I trust him completely."

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him that I was going back to my hometown and I wouldn't be able to dance any longer. He said that I had to dance the shows for the next week or I would be in breach of my contract, and he was upset because he said that he didn't have anyone to dance in my spot. He said that, if I left, I could kiss my career goodbye and would be relegated to teaching dancing again, and to make ends meet would be pole dancing like I did before. I gave him my old dance studio's address to send my final check to and told him that I would do the show tonight."

Ranger sighed. Wes shook his head. Lizzie looked at her in anger. "Why didn't you give an address and map to Sergei and his flunkies while you were at it?" she said. "If there are cops on Sergei's payroll, you have just given them the means to be able to find you."

Chastity looked at us in anger. "I didn't want my career to be over. I worked hard to become a professional dancer. You don't understand what it is like to slave over your chosen profession, and never have a break. When you finally do have a break, you have to do whatever it takes to protect that opportunity and make sure that you don't do anything to screw it up."

"I understand that", I said. "However, you have definitely chosen to give your life up for the potential of having a job, and I don't think any job is worth giving your life up for."

"This tells me that it would be better for Chastity to go to our Miami location rather than Trenton", said Ranger. "She can stay at one of our safe houses there." He turned to Chastity. "I'm giving you two choices. One, you can dance tonight but, if you do, our association is over. I cannot guard someone who so blatantly disregards what I say and acts in such a foolhardy manner. I will not protect you and will not provide a place for you to stay or the money for you to live on. You are not paying me to guard you, and I refuse to put Stephanie at any more risk than you have already done. The second option is that you don't dance tonight, you go where we tell you to go and you do what we tell you to do. You go into witness protection in truth, and you let us protect you. If you choose that option, you will be going to Miami and will be staying in one of our safe houses there. Because of your actions it is simply too unsafe for you to go to Trenton."

"But I was looking forward to dancing with my old dance studio."

I looked at her angrily. "Chastity", I said, "I have a guiding principle in life. It was a statement that I heard a while ago, and that was 'for every action there's a consequence. You cannot choose the consequences but you can choose the actions.' You told your manager where you were going. That was the action you chose. The consequence of that is that you cannot go to Trenton any longer. I'm sorry you don't like the consequence, but that is the action that you chose."

"I don't know anyone in Miami."

"You'll meet people. Just don't tell anyone that you are in witness protection and you should be fine."

"I have no way of earning money there."

"Your lodgings will be paid for", said Ranger, "and you have money for food in your savings. I'm sure you'll land on your feet."

I looked at Ranger. I knew that he was a badass, and I knew that he had a heart of gold. I also knew that he was angry. His eyes were tight and his shoulders tense. It wasn't often that I saw him take a hard line, but I knew he had that potential. And I knew that he was right. By taking a hard line, Ranger was effectively trying to shock Chastity into taking the situation seriously.

Chastity looked down at the ground and bit her lip. She thought about everything that we had said, and she nodded sadly. "Okay", she said. "I'll go to Miami."

"You should be saying thank you", I said in irritation. Chastity looked up in surprise. "Thank you for spending thousands of dollars on you to protect you for free", I said in clarification when she looked confused. "You do realize that Ranger normally charges eighteen hundred dollars a day to protect someone the way that he is protecting you, but that he is providing this service to you for free because you are my friend? You do realize that he has protected dignitaries and movie stars and now he has chosen to use his knowledge to protect you? You do realize that he has better things to do than to babysit you? Ranger is spending more than ten thousand dollars just to fly you down to Miami. He is providing you a place to stay and a support system through his company there, and you act like you are doing us a favor by accepting our help?" I turned to Ranger. "Forget it. Chastity doesn't appreciate everything you are doing for her. I think you should rescind your offer."

"Let her fly free?"

"She obviously doesn't appreciate the tens of thousands you are spending on her with no possibility of reimbursement. She has undermined your support and, by failing to use her head, she has put herself into greater danger – and by association, has put us in greater danger. I would have expected a little gratitude for what you are doing, but if your effort isn't appreciated then I don't think you have to help her. My mom has a saying that is 'you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink', and I think the same thing applies to Chastity. You can offer protection but you can't make Chastity accept that help. And she has to understand that she needs to do her part."

"I will, Steph. I will do my part", said Chastity.

"Are you sure?" I said. "Because from what I can see you are making stupid choices, choices that could get you killed. When you are in witness protection, you have to hide everything. Your identity, where you are living, everything."

"I just don't understand why I can't be in witness protection in Trenton. At least I'd have a support system there."

"You made that impossible. Now that you told your stage manager that you were going back to Trenton, and you left a forwarding address, Sergei and his associates will be looking for you in Trenton. We don't want them to find you, and they could find you very easily. You have effectively given them a roadmap, and you have put me, Ranger, your stage manager and your friend who owns the dance studio in danger. Your stupid, selfish action may result in someone being killed. As I said, you can choose the action but you can't choose the consequence."

"The stage manager won't tell anyone. I trust him."

"I have found in life that the sort of loyalty you are talking about often flies out the window when you are faced with losing a finger or an eye. I have found that torture is an effective way of making people talk."

She paled. "Surely they wouldn't torture Simon."

I looked at her as I mentally sighed. Chastity still wasn't getting it.

"Yes, they would torture Simon. They would torture your friend at the dance studio. They would torture me if they get ahold of me. These are not nice people, and they will stop at nothing to get what they want."

For the first time since Sven held her at gunpoint, she looked scared. "What do they want?"

"I think they want to kill you", I said. "They don't want witnesses to the murder the other day, and they will eradicate you to ensure you don't talk against them."

Tears came to her eyes. "I thought Sergei was a nice man."

"Do you still think he is a nice man?"

"Maybe I just misunderstood what happened?"

I sighed again. "Chastity, it's hard to misunderstand seeing someone kill another person. It's hard to misunderstand someone kidnapping you at gunpoint. I don't think you misunderstood anything."

"It's just that I want to go back to Trenton."

"Chastity, some day you will be able to go back to Trenton, but that day isn't today. Today, it's Miami or no protection. Ranger won't jeopardize his professional reputation by allowing you to go back to a place that isn't safe. So, if you don't go to Miami, our association is over."

She thought about that for a moment. "I guess I'll go to Miami then", she said.

"Look at it on the bright side", said Lizzie. "You won't have to deal with the snow and cold in Trenton."

"There is that", said Chastity.

I looked at Ranger, and he didn't look happy. But then, neither was I, so I could understand his irritation. I was mad at Chastity's selfishness and at her failure to understand the seriousness of the situation she found herself in. But most of all, I was mad that she didn't understand and appreciate everything that Ranger was doing for her.

I shook my head in amazement. God save me from stupid people.


	11. Chapter 11

Things happened quickly after that. Ranger had a flight booked for Chastity to fly out by early afternoon that day, and he phoned Brent and Samantha to let them know. I think Ranger wanted to make sure she actually went. Wes and Ranger changed their hotel reservations to the Waldorf Astoria, and Ranger cancelled the reservations that he had made that morning for the two-bedroom efficiency suite.

"I won't have any clothes", said Chastity.

Ranger smiled. "That reminds me", he said. "I promised to take you to the various ATMs to get your money out of your account. You'll need that money to do things like buy clothes and groceries. Remember, you can work in Miami. You just will need to make sure it is an all-cash deal."

"Where will I find someone willing to do that?"

I looked at her. "Chastity, I know that this is scary. But you'll be fine. Unfortunately, we can't help you with finding a dance studio to hire you, but we can get you to safety and give you somewhere to live. We can give you contacts of people who can help you in a pinch, but we can't do it all for you. We can't find you a job. We can't buy your groceries or go to a thrift store for clothes."

"Are you kidding? I'm not going to a thrift store for clothes that other people have worn."

I shook my head. Lula and I'd had a lot of fun shopping in thrift stores. It was a great way to purchase top-end designer clothes at bargain basement prices. "If you want to make your money last as long as you can, you'll go to a thrift store or a secondhand shop", I said. "You can't be proud. Survival is the name of the game, and everything you do has to be focused on survival, whether it is eking out your money or not telling anyone your location. It's important. I know that it is a huge mind shift, but it's an important one."

"We only have to go to one ATM", said Chastity. "I don't have much money in my account."

"How much do you have?" I said.

Chastity flushed. "Forty dollars. I was supposed to be paid today."

"Is it an automatic deposit?"

She grimaced. "No. That's why I had to tell Simon where to send my check. I need that money."

"I see", I said.

"We'll take down your banking information", said Ranger, "and deposit the check for you when it arrives in Trenton. You just have to tell your contact at the dance studio to let us know when it comes in. In the meantime, I'll give you some money to tide you over until you get a job."

"This will be, however, all the money we give you", I said, "so you need to eke it out, and look for another job as quickly as you can." I didn't want her to go out and spend it all on clothes, and then come asking Ranger for more to pay for food. While Ranger was wealthy, he didn't deserve to be taken advantage of and, from what I could see, Chastity wasn't particularly good at being independent. I rather suspected that Sergei had been wealthy, and that was what had attracted Chastity to the man.

After breakfast was finished, Ranger looked at Chastity. "Let's go to the ATM." He turned to the rest of us. "We'll meet you back here in about half an hour."

"Sure thing", said Wes.

Ranger collected his wallet and room key, and seconds later escorted Chastity out of the room. I turned to Wes and Lizzie as they left. "I'm sorry", I said. "I didn't remember her being so self-centered or selfish or stupid when she was a kid. It's like she's decided that she's been given a bad situation in life and she's willing to climb on top of anyone to get herself out of it."

"I suspect that this Sergei is wealthy", said Lizzie. "She seems like the kind of person attracted to someone for their money."

"I know", I said. "I wish I hadn't brought her into Ranger's and my sphere. Ranger shouldn't have to put up with that crap."

"You were just trying to do the right thing", said Wes.

"Yes, but now Ranger has to suffer the consequences and that's not fair to him. Monetarily, she's a walking nightmare. She never has been good with money, and I don't want her to bleed him dry. I'm afraid that she will consider Ranger her new sugar daddy. But it's much more than that. Ranger likes helping people and does a lot to help others. But when people don't appreciate it, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I don't see Chastity appreciating what he is doing for her. I admire him that he can still continue to help her, despite her bad attitude."

"Have you and Ranger been together long?" said Lizzie.

"Yes and no", I said. I explained how Ranger had been my mentor and good friend for years, and that we had only been seeing each other for eight months. "I can't speak for Ranger, but I am happier now than I think I have ever been in my life. Settling down with Ranger was the right thing for me to do."

"Because he is rich?" said Lizzie.

I looked at her in shock. "That's disgusting", I said. "Ranger is the kindest, most honorable, smartest person I know. It wouldn't matter to me if Ranger was just starting his business, or if he elected to work for someone else. I personally can't see him being happy not working just because he is an incredibly hard worker, but if he worked for someone else and brought in only a little income that would be alright with me as well. It's Ranger that I married, not his money."

Lizzie smiled. "I'm so glad to see your reaction to that statement. Ranger had told us about you, and I wanted to make sure you were good enough for him. Ranger is one of my most favorite people in the world. He reminds me of Wes, and that is high praise. Money comes and goes, but a person's character is for life. It's like that saying, that you can't change a leopard's spots. That is so true. As you said, Ranger will always be a hard worker. He will always be an honorable man. I just wanted to make sure that you deserved him."

I took a deep breath, appeased. I knew that Wes and Lizzie were important to Ranger, and I didn't want them thinking I was a gold-digger. "You must have really worried when you met Chastity. You can often tell a person's character by the friends they elect to keep, and Chastity doesn't make me look good."

Lizzie smiled. "Yes, but in fact I think it speaks better of you rather than less. You are friends and continue to try to help her despite her character." She turned to her husband. "If we are going to leave for another hotel, I need to pack."

Wes smiled but looked at me worriedly.

"You can go, Wes", I said, "and help pack. I won't let anyone into the suite, and I have research to do on Sergei."

Wes looked at me for a long moment, and then nodded. "I look forward to seeing what you discover in your research." He ushered his wife out of our suite and into their own, and I packed up Ranger's and my things before settling down in front of Ranger's computer. Twenty minutes later, I was deep into doing my research when there was knock on the door. I ignored it. "Housekeeping", yelled out a woman. I ignored that as well. Seconds later the door opened and a woman walked in. A man was behind her and, by the fear in the woman's eyes I could tell that the man was armed.

"Who are you?" I said.

"Bruno. Where's Chastity?"

"She's out."

"I'll just wait for her here." He motioned to the maid and she sat on the sofa. He stood facing us. I pressed the panic button on my watch.

"What do you want with her?" I said.

"I'm here representing her boyfriend. She has something of his, and he wants it back."

"I don't think she has anything of his."

"What's Chastity to you?"

"She's a friend from high school. I haven't seen her in a few years, and I've been enjoying the time to get caught up. So what does her boyfriend want from her? I can pass the message along for you." I shut the computer as Bruno walked towards me, and he took out his knife. The maid took off while his back was turned.

"Maybe I should carve you up, and that would be an effective message for her."

"I'm sure it would do something", I said. I was trying to stay calm and pretend that I knew what I was doing. I had visions of Ranger swooping in and saving the day, but he hadn't done so yet and I knew that he might not get the message in time. I tried to will Wes to come to the door, but apparently my will wasn't strong enough because Wes didn't appear.

Bruno approached me and grabbed my hand. I tried to push the desk into him, but it was hard to get leverage when he was holding my hand. I stood up and tried to yank my hand away, but he held on strong.

"You know, I will have you give a message to Chastity", said Bruno. He held my hand down to the surface of the desk and stabbed the knife through the webbing of my hand between my thumb and my forefinger and left the knife sticking up from the desk. That was his first mistake. "Tell Chastity we want it back, or else."

Just as he turned around to leave the suite, Ranger arrived with Chastity in tow. Bruno looked excited to see Chastity and didn't pay any attention to Ranger, and that was his second mistake. "I left a message for you", he said to Chastity. "We want it back, or the same thing will happen to you. But instead of a knife through your hand, you'll have a knife through your foot and your dancing career will be over."

"My God, Steph. Are you okay?" said Chastity.

"Not really", I said. My voice was wavering and my vision was going spotty, and the shock I was in reminded me of getting my ribs broken and the internal bleeding I went through just two months before.

I plopped down again and watched as Ranger approached Bruno. He was coiled like a spring, ready to strike, and Bruno had no clue as to how much danger he was in. Bruno was heavy and clunky, a rough claymore to Ranger's more lethal rapier.

Bruno feinted to the left and Ranger moved with him, and again from the left to the right as Bruno decided to make a run for it. Ranger moved to stand in his way, and Bruno decided to fight his way out of the situation. He came at Ranger with his fists up, and Ranger jumped to the side as Bruno ran by him, and slammed him in the kidneys. Bruno picked himself up and ran at Ranger again. Ranger again moved out of the way, grabbed his shirt as Bruno ran past, and ran with him to the wall to bash his head against the drywall. He tried to choke Bruno, but Bruno wasn't interested in that. He decided to fight back. And that was his third mistake.

Ranger slammed his hand upwards into the man's face, and Bruno's nose began to gush blood as Ranger broke his nose. Bruno tried to do the same to him, and Ranger grabbed hold of Bruno's fist and stepped into him. He dislocated Bruno's shoulder as he head-butted him. He brought his knee up and nailed him and, as Bruno crumpled into himself in pain, Ranger slammed his foot into his knee and broke his knee.

Bruno collapsed on the ground, screaming and swearing, and Ranger turned to Chastity. "Please get a clean towel from the bathroom", he said.

"How did you do that?" said Chastity as she looked at Ranger in a stupefied awe.

"Chastity", said Ranger sharply. "The towel?" He pulled out his phone and called Brent to let him know that we had another person captured. "I have to go", he said seconds later. "The assailant is starting to stir." He listened for a moment and looked down at Bruno. "Too late for that", he said. "You will definitely be interviewing him in the hospital."

He got off the phone and, in his best commander's voice, said, "Chastity! Towel! Now!"

Wes came into the suite, looked at the situation, and went into the bathroom to retrieve a towel. "I'm sorry, Ranger. I didn't get your text until now." He handed Ranger a stack of towels.

"That's okay", said Ranger. "I just might be a little late to sign the paperwork."

"Fair enough", said Wes. "I'll retrieve my cuffs. Are Brent and Samantha on the way?"

"They are. You don't need your cuffs. He isn't going anywhere." He turned to me. "Babe, I'm going to pull the knife out and it's going to hurt like a bitch. When I pull the knife out, get a towel on it and press down as hard as you can."

"Ranger? I feel like I'm about to pass out."

"Then as soon as we detach your hand from the desk, put your head between your knees."

He pulled out the knife and handed me a towel to sop up the blood. He shoved my head between my legs and kept his hand on the back of my head. "Push up with your head against my hand", he said.

His calm low voice worked to ground me more than having my head between my legs. After a few minutes, I said, "I think I'm okay now."

Ranger let me sit up, and I looked at him. He was still crouched beside me, and he smiled worriedly at me. "Hurts like a bitch, doesn't it?"

I smiled. "Yeah."

"I told you once that stab wounds were more painful than bullet wounds."

I huffed out a laugh. "I remember, and you were right. I know that it's a little cut, but it hurts a lot."

"It's not that little, babe. You'll need at least three stitches, I think, and probably more like five."

I smiled. "We've had a good run of it. I haven't been in the hospital for two months at least."

Ranger laughed. "Words escape me. Keep pressure on that, and I'll get your purse." He turned to Wes. "Can you babysit Chastity and get her to the airport for noon? Her flight leaves at one."

"Will do. I'll let my lawyer know that we'll be late."

"I'll text Emmy to let her know the same thing, and to ask her to delay her return until later this evening. When we get out of the hospital I'll bring Steph to Pearl Security with me."

"That's a good idea. That way Steph will have access to the printer and photocopier. I'll move over all your luggage and your computer."

"I have packed everything except the computer", I said. "I was working on it when Bruno came in."

"Sounds good", said Wes. "I'll see you in a couple of hours or so."


	12. Chapter 12

The ER was hopping and it was some time before we saw a doctor. Ranger looked tense and worried and irritated, and the irritation was the most curious of all. "What's wrong?" I said.

"Everything", said Ranger. "I'll be glad when we have moved hotels and Chastity is out of our hair."

"Because she poses a threat to us?"

Ranger sighed. "Chastity came on to me when we were out."

I froze. "What happened?"

"I took her to the ATM. The closest one was about five blocks away so we walked, but Chastity got lost on the way and we ended up walking more like ten blocks to get there. She said she knew the area well, but when it appeared as though we were lost I stopped in another hotel to ask for directions. She took out her forty dollars, and I took out a thousand for her from our accounts. She looked impressed that we had enough in our account to take that kind of money out. She made several inappropriate comments about how much money we have. It was like you could see the wheels turning in her head and she decided that I would be a good person for her to be attached to. So on the way back, she stopped to take a pebble out of her shoe and I stopped with her. I watched the environment around us and, when she was crouched down, she ran her hand up my shorts and felt me up. I kneed her in the chest and asked her what the hell she was doing, and Chastity said that she could satisfy me more than you could – which is wrong, by the way – and I would be better in a relationship with her than with you – which is also wrong, by the way."

"My God! What did you do?"

"I yanked her to her feet and marched her back to the hotel and, when we were almost at the building, I got your message that you were in trouble. I ran the rest of the way back. By that time, I didn't care whether Chastity was with me or not. It was lucky that she could keep up."

"She's a dancer. She's in good shape."

"She's bony and too thin, and her character is lacking. I don't know what you saw in her in high school. She is whiny and has too high an opinion of herself. She's self-centered and thinks the world revolves around her. She isn't someone that I could be friends with."

I looked at Ranger. He must have been very upset. He normally would never say so many criticisms against someone, no matter who they were. He was too honorable to badmouth anyone. He would typically just not say anything and keep his own counsel on the matter.

"I know. When she was in school, she was at the top of her game. Once my sister graduated, Chastity became the head cheerleader. She was popular and loved, and she was nice because everything was going her way. I often find that those who did well in high school often stagnate or fail in life. It's like, by not facing strife in school, they learned that life would always be that easy, and when they are released into the real world they find out that the world is a much harsher place than high school prepared them for."

Ranger thought about that for a few moments. "I can see that." He paused. "So when we returned, I find you attached to the desk, your face white with pain, and Bruno getting ready to leave. And that's when I lost control. It was the final straw on a bad day, and I reacted with too much force. He was just lucky that I didn't kill him."

"That would have had Chastity jumping up and down with glee."

Ranger smiled.

"I was never so happy to see someone as I was to see you when you arrived at the door. At least, earlier when I was almost kidnapped, I had a chance to fight it out myself. However, with my hand attached to the desk I didn't have any chance to fight it out. I was just stuck, no pun intended."

Ranger smiled.

"I love you."

Ranger kissed me. "I love you too", he said. "You know that I would never cheat on you, don't you?"

I smiled at him. "You're not the type. You're too honorable, and you would realize that it would take something away from you just as much as it took something away from me, and you wouldn't do that to me or to you." I paused and leaned forward to kiss him. "It goes against your sense of right and wrong, and you always do the right thing."

"I figure that, no matter what, you have to live your life in a way that you can look in the mirror with a sense of pride."

"That's one of the lessons I hope you teach Tia when she is born. It is so important to know within yourself that you did the right thing. That's one of the things I admire most about you – that steadiness and knowing that you always take the most honorable road, no matter if that road is the hardest road to take."

"Being with you is the easiest road to take."

I smiled at him.

He leaned down and kissed me. I glanced at my watch. "We've been here for two hours. Do you think it really needs stitches, or can we just bandage it up and get on with our day?"

"It really needs stitches. What did you have to do that was so important?"

"I'm even more interested now in doing the research that I was doing."

Ranger thought about smiling in agreement. "Did you find out anything yet in the research you did?"

"A bit. Some things I definitely have to research more. If we were at home I'd ask Morelli for the police file on the guy."

"Why?"

"The only birth record I can find for someone born in Michigan named Sergei Volki died thirty years ago. He doesn't pay taxes and there is no record of any property that he owns. But from everything Chastity said, he owns a large house in a good neighborhood, and he owns several profitable businesses."

"So what are you thinking?"

"I want to look at the police file. To me, this says that Sergei is an alias and he has another name that he goes by for all his official documentation. I want to know what that name is. I think that name will be very interesting."

Ranger's phone buzzed with an incoming text message. "Wes said that you can come back to Pearl Security and work there this afternoon if you feel up to it. He said that Emmy is there now, and he's set her up in the boardroom to work while they wait for us. He brought the computer for you to work on."

I smiled in relief. "I'll have to thank him. I don't particularly want to be away from you right now."

Ranger smiled. "Of that, we are in agreement." Ranger's phone buzzed again and he read the incoming text. "Wes also said that Brent has accompanied Bruno to the hospital, Samantha has taken Chastity's statement for this morning and is on the way to the hospital to take our statement, and Wes and Lizzie have taken all our bags, checked out, and have just dropped off Chastity at the airport. Lizzie is coming to the Pearl too and said that she'd pack up Wes's things in his office this afternoon and she'll go to the spa tomorrow."

"That sounds good."

"You could go with her."

"I could. A massage sounds very tempting right now."

Ranger smiled.

Shortly after the doctor came in to stitch up the wound, Samantha arrived to take our statement. "What happened this morning?" she said.

"I was working at the desk when Bruno forced a hotel maid to open the door to the suite. Shortly after he came in, she escaped. Bruno asked me where Chastity was and I told him that she was out. He asked me to deliver a message to her. He took my hand and stabbed me to the desk. Just after that, he was about to leave and Ranger showed up at the door."

"You are a very useful person to have around", said Samantha.

I smiled. "He's known as Batman in Trenton, because he always wears black and because he always is where you need him most. He has a habit of swooping in and saving my bacon."

Ranger snorted and flushed in embarrassment.

"So what happened then?" asked Samantha.

"Ranger disabled him, phoned you, detached me from the desk and brought me to the hospital."

"Bruno said Ranger was trying to kill him."

I laughed. "Ranger acted in self-defense. Bruno was trying to kill Ranger. Ranger stopped him. If Ranger had wanted to kill Bruno, he would have. However, he reacted in an appropriate manner for the level of threat that Bruno was displaying."

"Ranger didn't get a mark on him", said Samantha.

I smiled. "I was stuck to the desk with a knife sticking out of my hand. I think that was threat enough. Ranger had to put him down so that he could help me. He had to disable him in a way that Bruno wouldn't get up and walk away while Ranger was helping me. He did not act with unreasonable force."

"Did you have a chance to do your research?"

I smiled. "That's what I was doing when Bruno came in. Who did your research for the police department?"

"Our research division. We have a special division that does all our research for us. They are faster and more thorough than each of us officers."

"Is there any chance that we could get a copy of that research?" I said. "I'd like to verify it."

"That is protected information."

"I understand", I said. "However, my research isn't lining up with what you have told me about the man, and I'd like to see where you got your information."

"What are you finding?"

"Sergei doesn't exist. He has no tax returns, no properties that he owns, no businesses, no work history, no immigration papers, nothing. So that makes me think that Sergei is an alias, which makes me wonder why he needs an alias. That's where I was when Bruno came in. When I get back to Rangeman, I can run some facial recognition software to see if he is a wanted criminal. If you can't get me a copy of his file, I'd appreciate it if you could at least give me his picture. I want to check the international databases to see if I can pull something up."

"I can definitely get you a picture. I'll talk to my dad, but I suspect that he'll say that we cannot share the file. I will, however, go into the search programs and run the searches myself. I did talk to Detective Joseph Morelli at the TPD, and he spoke highly of your abilities. He said that you were the best researcher that he had ever seen."

"That was kind of him. It helps having a good program to use."

"He said you'd say that. He said, however, that you take the results the program spits out and extend them as far as they go, and he said that you cite the references so that he can follow and check your work. He said he tried to check it a few times when you first started researching for him, but he now just takes what you say as gospel and doesn't bother checking it."

I smiled. "I do try to include the site addresses that I found the information on, as I think it is important for people to be able to check what I have found out. Like anyone, I can make mistakes as well and I want people to be able to check my work."

"Have you made a mistake yet?"

"No, which is why it is irritating to me that I can't find anything on Sergei. It has to be an alias. It's the only thing that makes sense."

"I'll bring a picture of him to you. Where will you be? Wes said that you were leaving the Four Seasons."

"Steph will be with me at Pearl Security this afternoon", said Ranger. "She said she wanted to do more research, and I want her close to me so that I know that she's okay."

"It was an upsetting day for you", said Samantha to Ranger.

"It was an upsetting day for both of us", said Ranger. "Luckily it's not every day you walk in and see a knife sticking out of your wife's hand."

Samantha nodded. "I'll bring a picture to Pearl Security this afternoon. Are you going directly there after leaving the hospital?"

"Yes", said Ranger. "I don't know when we'll be released."

"In about two minutes", said the doctor. He cleaned up the skin around the cut. "In a week, you'll need to have those stitches taken out. However, by tomorrow morning you can get your stitches wet. Take over-the-counter pain relievers for the pain." He told me which one was safe to use during pregnancy, and I didn't have the heart to tell him that I was well familiar with what pain relievers I could safely take. "Your hand will swell, and that's perfectly normal. Try to keep it raised to reduce the swelling, and keep an ice pack on it for ten-minute increments, ten minutes on and ten minutes off. If it turns red and hot to the touch, or starts weeping pus, come back and we'll look at it again."

"Thanks", I said.

Ranger helped me sit up and the doctor handed me the ice pack. "Have a good day", he said.

"You too", I said, and as I left I had trouble not smiling.

"What is it, babe?" asked Ranger.

"I was just thinking about the doctor's goodbye when he wished us a good day, and I thought about the day we've had so far. It's so far from good it isn't even funny."

Ranger smiled. "I don't know. The knife didn't hit anything major, all three assailants were captured, and besides being cut you are alright. I would say that everything is going well, considering."

"Do you need a ride to Pearl?" asked Samantha as we left the hospital.

"That would be fabulous", said Ranger. "Thanks." He turned to me. "You know what the other piece of good news is?"

"What's that?"

"It's your non-dominant hand. You'll still have full use of your right hand."

"That's true", I said. "And he mainly just sliced through a bit of skin. I got lucky, didn't I?" I started to shake.

Ranger slung his arm over my shoulder and snugged me into his body. He shortened his stride to match mine and said, "yeah, babe, you did. It's a good thing that Chastity isn't in front of me right now or I'd tan her hide."

"Why's that, Ranger?" said Samantha.

"Chastity told a friend of hers that she was going back to Trenton today. She gave a forwarding address. She is now no longer going to Trenton."

"Wes said she is flying out today?"

"She should be on the plane as we speak. I have arranged for someone to meet her at the airport and take her to her final destination."

"Please don't tell me where it is", said Samantha. "I'm getting spooked about this case. The more I know, the more evidence or witnesses or whatever disappears. It has been one step forward, two steps back for the last year, and Chastity is our first solid break. Brent and I have been getting so frustrated with this case. It seems that, every time we get a break, our lead disappears. If you can keep Chastity safe until the trial, we'd be very thankful."

"We'll try our best", said Ranger, "but she isn't making this easy for us."

"Tell me about it", said Samantha. "I don't know if I have ever had a cooperative witness and, if I did, I'd be wondering what they were hiding."


	13. Chapter 13

Unlike Ranger's seven-floor office tower, Pearl Security only occupied a single floor. When I commented on it, Ranger told me that since the company was largely comprised of security guards who all worked off-site they didn't need a lot of office space. The office was set up nicely, however, and Wes let me work in one of the two conference rooms. He took the other conference room for himself.

I stuck my head in the door and said hello to Emmy. She had been doing some work on her computer when we got in, and I apologized for the delay in her meeting. "So you are having a hard time on your honeymoon?" she said.

I smiled. I knew she was fishing, and she must have picked around this time when she was placing her bet. The Rangeman staff liked to bet on things, and they bet on a lot. Ranger said that it livened up an essentially dull job. He had told them already that the baby would be a girl, her name, and her expected due date. There was a pool going on as to the date and time when the baby would actually be born.

There was a separate pool going, however, on the date that Ranger and I were getting married. One sharp-eyed staff member had noticed my engagement ring and had announced it to the staff, and after that the betting books were opened. Apparently bets were flying fast and furious. Several people, knowing that Ranger and I had taken a week off work, had selected this week for the wedding. Some of those people would be right.

So I knew that Emmy was fishing to see when we got married so that she could participate in the pool with a little more information than everyone else. I didn't mind – but I also didn't answer her question. "It's nice to see you", I said instead. "I have some research to do. I'll see you in the office next week?"

"Not nice", said Emmy as I walked out of her conference room and into mine. "You could have told me."

I popped my head back into the conference room. "Now, what would be the fun in that?" I laughed at the disgruntled expression on her face, but I noticed that she looked at Ranger's hand when he entered to see if there was ring on it. There of course wasn't. Ranger had decided that it was too dangerous for him to wear a ring. He was always concerned about identifying a link between us.

I turned and entered the small conference room and set up the computer. The page was still open on the search that I'd been doing, but the session had timed out. I started the session again and continued searching.

After half an hour of searching, Samantha was shown into the conference room. "Do you have your phone on you?" she said.

"Yes."

"Is it good for taking pictures? I want to get a new phone, and I am doing a poll to see which phone is best for photos." She put a file folder on the table.

"I have an iPhone. It's excellent for taking photos."

"Very good. I brought the file, but I received word that I couldn't show it to you when I was on the way here. I understand you need it, but my hands are tied."

"I understand."

"You wouldn't happen to know where the bathroom is, do you? My stomach is a little upset and I'll likely be in there for about ten minutes."

I smiled. I heard what she was saying to me. "You'll have to ask for directions", I said. "This is the first time I've been in the office myself."

Samantha looked at her watch, and then left the room. As soon as she was gone, I opened the file and took pictures of every page. There weren't a lot of pages, and by the time I was finished only four minutes had passed. And by the time Samantha had returned, I had downloaded the pictures and was halfway through reading the file.

"Have you found anything interesting in your search?" said Samantha.

"I'm working on a theory", I said. "I wouldn't, however, take any of this information to your research department. I suspect that your research department has a person who is working on behalf of Sergei."

"Any spoilers?"

"The only Sergei Volki that I could find was a nine-year old boy who died thirty years ago. It would really help me if I could see that file."

Samantha smiled. "I'm sorry. I would help you if I could, but my hands are tied."

"I understand", I said. "I'll find out what I can and retrace steps, but from what I can tell, Sergei Volki doesn't exist. Now that I have his picture, however, I'll check it with Interpol to see what I can pull up."

"You can do that?"

"We have access to a number of databases. I personally haven't had to use the Interpol one, but I know that we have that ability. Ranger may have to do the search himself, but we'll check."

"Ranger can do that?"

"He has a number of connections to people in high places. With those links comes the ability to search through a number of databases that would be closed to the average person."

"I would check Interpol myself, but that is something that is done out of our research department and, if you think there is someone on Sergei's payroll there, I don't want to take the chance that we tip him or her off."

"Exactly. I'd rather have him or her think that Ranger is just a person good on self-defense rather than someone who has connections."

"Okay. Stay in touch. When are you returning to Trenton?"

"Our flight leaves at quarter to eleven in the morning on Sunday. If I'm not finished researching this file before I leave, I'll finish researching it after I get back and will send the results to you. May I send them to your home email address? I would hate for your email to be hacked by another officer." After all, that had happened to Morelli just a month before. The result was that Morelli had been threatened, I had been threatened and my bodyguard had been shot, luckily not fatally.

Samantha pulled out a business card and wrote her address on the back, and handed it to me. "I'm sorry I couldn't be more help with this file", she said. "Detective Morelli said that it would be safe sharing as much information as we could with you, but you aren't members of the police force and I wasn't allowed."

"If we were going to work with you in the future, you should consider deputizing us. That's what the Trenton Police Department and the Newark Police Division have done to help us get around these sorts of issues." I got up and walked with Samantha to the reception area.

"Ranger said that he might be signing on other police departments?"

"Deals with the New Jersey State Police and the Jersey City Police Department should be ready to sign when we get back. However, the Miami Police Department and the DEA have also asked for proposals, and as long as we can come to an agreement we will likely soon be hammering out deals with them as well."

"What sort of training does your staff have?"

"It's varied. We have forensic accountants who specialize at looking at companies and computer hackers and librarians who specialize in looking at individuals. We are in the process of hiring more staff, and I think that I'll look for a mix of librarians and those with Criminology degrees."

"Detective Morelli said that he takes about four files to you on average per week and your work has been so helpful that people are clamoring to be one of the four files. He said that you've been able to find leads on cold cases and identify charges that they can stick to people who are eluding the force even though the force knows that they are guilty. He said that you are incredibly helpful."

I smiled. "We try our best. The researchers that we have on staff are exceptionally talented and if they can't find anything, it isn't there to be found."

"I'm looking forward to seeing what you find on Sergei."

"I'll send it through to your home email address. I might not be able to do much until I get back to our head office. I will only work on it today. Tomorrow I have plans and Sunday will be spent travelling. Either way, I'll send through what I have tonight and let you know whether I have more avenues that I want to research."

"That would be helpful, thanks", said Samantha.

She said goodbye to me and took her file, and I returned to the conference room to finish reading the file contents. From what I could see, the file was largely fictional. The only actual information that I could find was the location and date that Sergei had apparently been 'born' – the same as the dead boy. However, that's where the similarities ended.

The research had all been done by one officer in particular. I thought I'd have to investigate that officer as well, after I finished investigating Sergei.

With a name like Sergei Volki, it reminded me of the Russian mafia. It might be unfair and stereotyping of me to think of that, but that was what I thought of. I looked at the photo of Sergei, and decided to search the Interpol database. Fifteen minutes later, I had a hit. His name, according to Interpol, was Vlad Volkov. It didn't say what he was wanted for, but Russia wanted him for charges of some sort.

I searched the name Vlad Volkov, and came up with a number of hits. He had entered the US about eight years ago, and had since then bought three businesses in the Atlanta area. His name must have been entered in the Interpol database after he had entered the US. They would have detained him at the border otherwise.

The Interpol database wouldn't give me a list of his charges when they thought I was just a member of the general public, so I used my TPD connections and accessed the files. Vlad was wanted for extortion, money laundering and illegal arms trade. I printed off his criminal history.

I searched for Vlad Volkov and Vladimir Volkov, and mentally thanked the person who developed the software to translate web pages, and through it all found out that Vlad Volkov was a member of the Russian mafia and that his grandfather was the head of the organization. I discovered that Vlad had entered the country at the same time as Bruno, and that Bruno was also on Interpol's wanted list. The two other heavies, Sven and Ronald, weren't on Interpol's list and were, in fact, born in the US. They were, however, wanted by the FBI for being assassins. I thought that they weren't very good ones.

I built a case against Sven and Ronald while I waited for Ranger, and soon had a solid case against both of them. When Ranger got out of the meeting, I was in the process of building a case against Bruno.

Ranger walked into the conference room. "How's it going?" he said.

"Good, but I'm glad that we were deputized by the TPD and have access to their databases. I needed their help in doing my search today. Interpol wouldn't give me any information otherwise."

"Interpol? Who are you looking up?"

"Sergei Volki is the same person on as Vlad Volkov. He is wanted on a number of charges. His grandfather appears to be the head of the Russian mafia, and he is branching out into various parts of the US. Vlad has brothers and sisters who arrived at the same time in the US and have dispersed throughout the country. My guess is they are all setting up operations for their grandfather. I still have to track down all the other members of the family. Bruno Golubev is the same person as Bruno Bastos, the Bruno that attacked us this morning. Like Vlad, he is wanted by Interpol for extortion and illegal arms trading. Unlike Vlad, he didn't travel to the US with family. However, he did travel to the US with Vlad. Vlad, out of all this brothers and sisters, is the only one that has a record with Interpol as far as I can see. However, if his sisters changed their names with marriage I might not have caught them with my initial sweep."

"Were you able to get a copy of the police file?"

I smiled. "Yes and no. Officially, no. But Samantha had to go to the bathroom and told me that her stomach was upset and she would be about ten minutes. She told me that she wished she could help me with the file and had brought it as she wasn't told that she couldn't give it to me until she was on her way here. So she left the file with me unattended for ten minutes, and I was able to take pictures of each of the pages in the file. The official police file is fictitious. There is no record of anything that is said in the file in any known database. One particular officer was in charge of all the research into Sergei, and I have yet to look into his background to see if I can find a link to Sergei."

"So you have Sergei, who is really Vlad Volkov, who is on Interpol's wanted list for extortion, money laundering and illegal arms trade. You have Bruno Golubev, who is on Interpol's list for extortion and illegal arms trade. He is probably involved in money laundering as well, but he just hasn't been caught on that yet. You have a number of other relatives of Vlad's who might or might not be part of the mafia as well. Have you confirmed whether they are part of the mafia?"

"Not exactly, and because I don't know their aliases or faces I don't know how to find that out."

"What about the police contact who created the original file?"

"I have yet to look into him."

"What about Sven and Ronald?"

"They are assassins who have been linked to a few different murders. The FBI has warrants out for their arrest. They have links to fifteen different murders in six different states, and those are just the ones with known links."

"Okay. Send the information off to Samantha and tell her that you'll look into the other officer on Monday. I'm hoping that you'll use the facilities at the spa tomorrow while I am working."

"That's the plan."

"You did good work, babe."

I smiled. It was a slam dunk as far as a link to Interpol and Sergei could be arrested on that information alone. However, I wanted it to be even more of a slam dunk. There was something about the case that didn't sit right with me, and I didn't know what it was. I thought I'd shelve it for a while, and perhaps when I looked at it with fresh eyes I would be able to figure out what it was.


	14. Chapter 14

The suite at the Waldorf Astoria was just as luxurious as the one at the Four Seasons and, in many ways, I liked it better. I found the colors used in the decorating of the room to be more restful, but that was personal opinion.

Like before, Ranger's and Wes's suites were located beside each other, and Wes and Lizzie were just as happy with their suite as I was with ours. After investigating the rooms, I changed into the dress I was wearing to dinner. I would have liked to have had a shower to freshen up, but I wasn't able to get my stitches wet until the next day. I didn't even redo my makeup as I didn't think I'd be able to wield the mascara wand with my sore hand.

Because I only had to get dressed, I was ready before Ranger. I opened his computer while I waited and accessed the computer files. I reviewed the search results again and thought about the case before realizing that the one person I hadn't even thought of researching was Chastity. I put her name into the search engine and waited. A few minutes later, information started pouring out. She had blackmailed her way into the dancing job she had at Kinky Boots, and it was only reported after she left town. Apparently she had told the man that his club would burn down if he reported the blackmailing. There was a warrant out for her arrest.

After she left Kinky Boots, she moved to Atlanta to work in the chorus line in Burlesque. The dancer who had filled the role prior to Chastity's employment had her leg broken in a mugging gone wrong. It was a bad break for the previous dancer, no pun intended. While in Atlanta, she was romantically linked to Sergei Volki. She had been seeing him for the entire year that she had lived in Atlanta. That was different than the one month that she had told us. That discrepancy made me curious. Why would she lie?

As far as I could tell, Sergei had the habit of buying Chastity expensive things. She was seen on his arm going into several nightclubs and restaurants. They had a much closer connection than Chastity had alluded to.

I looked at the extortion witness statements – unsigned, but still there. Some victims reported a woman as the person who had delivered the extortion threats, a woman whose description matched Chastity. I would bet money that I had identified the woman.

"Fuck!" I said as I scrolled down further and put the pieces together.

"What's wrong?" said Ranger as he came out of the bedroom wearing a black suit and a black shirt.

"Chastity has been playing us."

"What do you mean?"

"Chastity has been seeing Sergei romantically for a year, not a month. She has a history of blackmail and I suspect is the woman who has been delivering the extortion threats on behalf of Sergei. Sergei is working much more closely with her than she admitted to. He has bought tens of thousands of dollars of jewelry for her, and is paying for her apartment rental. She lives in a luxury apartment in an area of high rent. She's not a victim. She's part of the problem."

Ranger stilled, and his face took on a 'not-happy' look. "What do you want to do about it?"

"I don't know. I feel like an idiot for trusting her without looking into her story further. I should have known better."

"No, you shouldn't have. It's okay to trust someone and believe in them. I believed her as well. That doesn't speak poorly of us but rather speaks poorly of Chastity."

"I'm sorry. I have cost you thousands of dollars, and the person it was benefiting isn't even the person we thought she was."

"That's okay, babe. You win some and you lose some. I wonder why she looked so scared that first night. If she is part of Sergei's operation, why was she so nervous around him?"

"I don't know, and that's a question that I very much want to know the answer to." I paused. "Bruno said she had something of Sergei's." I paused again. "Damn, I want to know what it is."

"Send a note to Samantha to let her know that you are investigating Chastity and why, and then come with me to dinner. When we get back you can do some more research for a while. But in the meantime, let's eat."

I looked at him and then looked at the computer. "Come on, babe", he said. "This is a night for celebrating." He pulled out his phone and texted someone, then smiled at me. "I have asked Russ to take someone off patrol to babysit Chastity. I don't know yet what we want to do with her, but I do know that I don't want her to disappear while we decide."

I looked at him in gratitude. "Thanks, Ranger", I said. I stood and picked up my wrap and evening purse, and followed Ranger out of the suite.

We knocked on Wes's and Lizzie's door and Wes opened it with a smile. "Lizzie's just finishing getting ready", he said. "Would you like to come into the suite to wait?" We followed him in and, as Lizzie came out of the bedroom, Wes said, "what's wrong? You seem tense."

"I just found out that Chastity played us", I said with disgust.

"What happened?" said Wes.

"I think Chastity is in league with Sergei. She's not a victim. She's part of his operation."

"Tell me about it." Wes sat down on the sofa, and Lizzie sat beside him. "Our reservations aren't for a few minutes yet."

"Chastity blackmailed her way into the job at Kinky Boots. Then, when she wanted a job dancing in Burlesque, there weren't any jobs available until one of the dancers was mugged. Nothing was taken, but her leg was broken. Chastity got the job. Someone needs to talk to the stage manager to find out how Chastity got the job over all the other dancers." I paused to take a breath. "When Chastity arrived in Atlanta, she connected with Sergei. There is no indication whether she knew him prior to connecting with him here. She has been connected to him for the last year. He has bought her several extravagant gifts and seems to be paying the rent on her luxury apartment, and that rent seems to have been paid by him right from when she moved here. Sergei is known for being involved in extortion. People have reported a woman collecting the money. The description of the woman matches Chastity, but there is no proof that Chastity is that person. The police would have to go to the victims with Chastity's picture and see if they can get a positive identification. I'd also like to hear what Chastity has to say about things. Ranger has asked that a Rangeman staff is taken off patrol and sent to babysit Chastity. We don't want to take the chance that she disappears."

"It sounds like you have more researching to do", said Wes.

"I do."

"Have you let Samantha and Brent know?"

"Not yet. I just said that I still had to look into Chastity's life, as well as the officer who created all the fake reports on Sergei."

Wes nodded, and looked at his wife. She nodded once in that unspoken way of talking to each other that couples who have been together for a long time have. I could only hope that Ranger and I had that same sort of communication in a few years. "It sounds like you have a lot to do. How about we order room service tonight and go out on our celebratory dinner tomorrow? You're not going to enjoy it as much as you should if we hold it tonight, and the most important thing to me is that we are all together."

I looked at Ranger, and he looked at me for a moment. He smiled. "That sounds good to me. You are right in that Steph's mind will be whirling with research avenues, and I know her well enough to know that she won't be able to enjoy a dinner out until she has exhausted her researching capabilities. When she has a thorny problem in front of her, I've even found her getting up in the middle of the night and working on the query."

"Hey, mister! That only happened once."

Ranger smiled softly at me. "That was once too often, babe. You need your sleep."

Lizzie laughed. "I'll just change into comfortable clothing if we are going to order in", she said.

"We'll be over to your suite in a minute", said Wes.

"Thanks", I said. "I'm going to change as well. I love this dress, but I only have so many fancy dresses to wear out."

Lizzie laughed. "Exactly."

Ranger helped me to my feet and led me back to our suite. I quickly changed back into a pair of tights and an oversized sweater, and padded out of the bedroom in my bare feet. I sat behind the desk as Ranger let Lizzie and Wes into the suite, and smiled at them distractedly.

"Sometimes I think Steph is like a hound dog", said Ranger with a grin. "When she has caught a scent, there is no stopping her."

I smiled. "I'm going to take that as a compliment."

"I don't know", said Lizzie with a glare at Ranger. "He just called you a dog."

"Yes, but he didn't call me a bitch, so I'm happy", I said.

Lizzie and Wes laughed.

I opened the computer and started to research Chastity's life, and while I did I created lines needing further inquiry. I outlined Chastity's history with the dance studio and Kinky Boots, and I pulled up the police report and Trenton arrest warrant. I looked at the police report on the woman dancer with the broken leg, and found that the woman thought the attacker was small but strong. I questioned whether the attacker was female, and I put that as another point that required further investigation. I suggested that the stage manager be questioned as to how Chastity got the job.

I remembered Chastity saying that Simon, the stage manager, was a friend of hers. I looked into his life, but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. At least, I couldn't find anything other than the fact that he had stopped paying rent six months before. I detailed the results of that search but even though the search had come up with basically nothing, my Spidey-senses were tingling and I thought that he was somehow involved. I thought he should be questioned by the police, and I added that suggestion into my report.

I then looked into the investigating officer. He was receiving a kickback of one percent of the profits. However, he seemed to be the only officer on Sergei's payroll. He had a wife and daughter, and he'd moved his family out of town about the same time as he started to receive the money from Sergei. I suspected that his family was threatened, and that's why he agreed to start receiving kickbacks and to throw the scent off Sergei through fudging his research.

"What would you like to order for dinner, babe?" I looked up at Ranger, my mind still on my research. "Babe?" he said.

I snapped back to the present. "I'm sorry?"

Ranger smiled and repeated himself.

"Just order me whatever", I said. "You know what I like."

Ranger grinned. "Cabbage rolls coming up."

"Sure." I continued researching for a moment, then it hit me what he'd said. I looked up at him in horror. "You wouldn't really order me cabbage rolls, would you?" I had a theory. Cabbage and tomato sauce should never be served together. Tomato sauce was from hot places, like Italy. Cabbage was from cold places, like Germany and Russia and Poland. The two shouldn't mix. I was a purist in my food choices.

Ranger laughed. "I was just testing to see if you were listening." He laughed again as I made a face at him, and turned to the menu to look over the selections. "How about a Philly cheesesteak with a side salad?"

"Sure", I said. In truth, I was back in my research and would have agreed to almost anything. Except cabbage rolls.

Ranger got Wes's and Lizzie's orders, and phoned the requests down to Room Service. By the time the food came, I was in the middle of tracking Sergei's outgoing monies and comparing them with Chastity's expenses, and was able to prove that Sergei had been funding Chastity since she had first arrived in Atlanta. I pulled up a number of media pictures of Chastity with Sergei throughout her entire time in Atlanta. I suggested that Brent and Samantha look into proving that a relationship existed prior to leaving Trenton. Perhaps someone saw them together?

Essentially, however, I wasn't able to link Chastity with any wrongdoing – unless Samantha and Brent could find someone willing to identify Chastity, they had nothing to go on.

The meal came, and I ate it by rote. Ranger and Wes and Lizzie talked quietly with each other as I rolled the problem over and over in my mind.

Besides Chastity's apartment rental, there didn't appear to be any money passed from Sergei to Chastity. Of course, he did buy her all that jewelry. I didn't know my prices for jewelry, but it appeared to me that he had spent a lot of money on Chastity. However, once she wore the piece of jewelry once, the jewelry was retired and she was never photographed with it again. I didn't know what happened to the jewelry. As someone who wore the same necklace every day, I couldn't understand someone who wore a piece of jewelry once and didn't wear it again.

I suggested to Brent and Samantha that they look in the pawn shops for Chastity's jewelry or, if they could, get a warrant to see if the jewelry was in her apartment. My instinct said that the jewelry was how Sergei paid Chastity for her involvement in the extortion, and it was another way that Sergei laundered his money. I detailed that in my hypothesis section.

I then delved into Chastity's accounts. She had large sums go into her account shortly after Sergei bought her jewelry, usually a week afterwards, and the sums were just a little less than the value of the jewelry. I also found out that, although her checking account had forty dollars in it, her savings and investment accounts had several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I looked into her accounts further. There were several large deposits made per month. There were the ones around the potential sale of the jewelry. However, there were other large deposits made every Monday. These deposits were always the same amount, but I didn't think they were earned legally. They certainly weren't reported to the IRS on her income tax.

Something about the regular Monday deposits struck a chord with me, and I looked back at Sergei's account. He had regular Tuesday deposits. If you added the Tuesday deposits to the Monday deposits, the Monday deposit represented one-tenth of the whole. As a further line of inquiry, I suggested that, when Samantha and Brent asked those who were paying money whether Chastity was the person collecting the money, they should find out whether they paid that money on Mondays. I then wrote my overriding hypothesis – that Chastity was the person collecting the money, that she did it on Mondays, she paid the money to Sergei on Tuesday, but that she took ten percent of the income off the top for herself. My theory was that she had been skimming the money coming in and Sergei had figured that out, and he wanted her so that he could get his money back.

"Gotcha", I said softly and with satisfaction.

Wes and Lizzie and Ranger turned to look at me. "What do you have, babe?" said Ranger.

I explained my theory to the other three people, and outlined the different things that Samantha and Brent needed to look into.

"It sounds like it is a valid theory", said Wes, "and you have identified some solid avenues that Samantha and Brent can investigate to prove or disprove your theory. You may have found the method in taking Sergei down."

"I'm still furious at Chastity."

Wes smiled. "Just be prepared for the potential of Chastity being given a deal to hang Sergei. He's the prize, and the police will have to keep their eye on the prize."

"Can't they ruin her in the process?"

"They might not have an option. However, there still is the arrest warrant out there from Trenton. They might cut a deal for her for her involvement in the extortion, but they won't for the blackmailing in Trenton or the potential assault of the other dancer."

"Thank God", I said. "I don't like the fact that she might be getting away with the crimes that she has committed. She is, as far as I can tell, just as guilty as Sergei."

"It was a supremely stupid thing to do to skim the extortion money from the mafia", said Lizzie.

"It was a supremely stupid thing to do to get involved with the mafia to start off with", I said.

Ranger got a text. He looked down and read it, and his face took on a 'not-happy' look. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"Tyler lost Chastity", he said.


	15. Chapter 15

"What happened?" I asked.

"Tyler went to the washroom and, when he got out, she was gone. There are no signs of a struggle." Ranger quickly typed in a text, then sent another one a few seconds later. "I have instructed Russ to concentrate the patrol teams on the area to help find her, and have sent a copy of her picture out to the various patrol teams so that they can look for her. I have also told Tyler that it wasn't his fault. He should be able to go to the washroom without fear that the person he is protecting will disappear. He said that he had checked the door and the windows prior to going into the bathroom, and the safe house was locked up nice and tight."

"I'll check her cell phone to see if she got any calls", I said.

I pulled over the computer again and pulled up Chastity's cell phone records. She had received six calls from Sergei when Sergei was in Atlanta and one call from Sergei when he was in Miami. She also made a couple of calls. One call was to Sergei that was made shortly after she landed in Miami. The other call was to her friend Simon, which she made immediately after talking to Sergei. The call to Sergei was fairly short, just a couple of minutes long. The call to Simon was much longer, about fifteen minutes. It was a few hours after those two calls that Sergei called from Miami and, from what I could tell, it was immediately after Chastity received the call from Sergei that she decided to take a walk.

I then accessed the plane manifests and looked for Sergei's name. I didn't find Sergei Volki but I did find Vladimir Volkov listed. His plane had landed an hour before.

I figured that Chastity didn't leave her phone at the safe house, so I tracked her cell phone. It was on the move, and I gave the coordinates of the phone to Ranger. He fed them through to his patrol teams, and Russ said that they would focus their search on the coordinates as I relayed them to the teams.

"You really can do that?" said Lizzie. "I thought it was just in movies that you could find someone based on their cell phone location or, at least, I thought the phone had to be in use."

Ranger smiled. "Actually", he said, "the phone just has to be turned on for the GPS to work. If she had turned her phone off it would be much more challenging. A lot of people think that it is just something that can be done in the movies, however, and don't realize that it can be done in real life. That's good for us. Chastity is not the first person we have found this way."

Ranger typed in another message. "I just told the Rangeman staff to not admit to Chastity how we found her, and to tell her that it was good luck. If she ever escaped again, I would hate for her to have learned to turn off her cell phone."

I blew out a breath of frustration, and could only hope that we caught her soon.

I continued to feed locations through to the Rangeman staff, and twenty minutes later a team sent through the message, "we got her."

Ranger typed in a quick response, and then said, "I've instructed Russ to book plane tickets for three to come back to Atlanta. One for Chastity and two for our most wily bodyguards. That way, there will always be someone on hand with her. I have also instructed them to cuff her and not take cuffs off her until we hand her over to the Atlanta police. If Chastity is going to make stupid decisions, we'll have to take steps to save her from herself."

"She's going to hate being cuffed", I said.

"That's her problem", said Ranger. "It's like if you are capturing a felon. You always put cuffs on them, no matter who they are. It is their own behavior that causes them to be treated like a criminal."

I smiled. "I like it."

"Did you send through your report to Samantha?"

"I will just do that now."

"I'll call her and put her on speakerphone, and we can tell her what has happened."

I pulled up Samantha's home email address and sent through my final report. In it was my summary report with attached individual reports on every person that I thought of that might be involved. It included my main theory based on the research and lines of inquiry that Brent and Samantha needed to focus on to prove or disprove my theory. The entire document was twenty-eight pages long.

Ranger dialed Samantha's number, and she answered immediately. "Hi. It's Ranger and Steph and Wes and Lizzie. We were hoping to talk to you about the case", he said.

"Please tell me that you have found a break", said Samantha. "I've just spent the last three hours going over our researcher's results, and I can't verify anything he has said."

"That's because it is all fictitious", I said. "I have just sent you our research report. I have looked into Sergei's, Chastity's, Bruno's, Sven's, Ronald's and Simon's lives, as well as the life of the officer who did the research."

"Simon?"

"He's the stage manager for Chastity's show, and apparently is a good friend."

"We sent Chastity down to Miami", said Ranger, "but because she left her phone on and because she took some calls, both from Sergei and from Simon, Sergei found out her location. He is now in Miami. He called her, I guess to tell her that he was in town and that he was coming for her, as Chastity then escaped her guard and took off on her own. We have retrieved her and are bringing her back to Atlanta on the next available flight. She will have two guards and will be cuffed."

"Just because she escaped?"

"No", I said. "I think she is up to her eyeballs in this."

"I don't understand."

I explained my theory and the way I came to it. I reviewed the evidence that I had found and what it had shown me. And I went over all the various players. "I think Simon is the weak link. I think he knows what is going on, but doesn't have anything to do with it. However, Simon and Chastity are good friends and he might roll on her if he thinks that she will be offered a deal."

"I have to talk to my captain and the DA. I don't know if we can offer her a deal."

"I hope you can't", I said. "I'm still reeling by her selfishness and immorality. I hate that she took advantage of us, and that we spent a lot of money to help her out. I'm furious and feeling like a victim. It would do me good to know that she was being punished fully for her actions. However, that doesn't mean that Simon needs to know that. I haven't met the man, but I suspect that he would talk if he thought that he was helping Chastity."

"You're devious, Stephanie", said Samantha with a laugh.

"I'm mad." I smiled. I liked the thought that someone thought of me as devious. Ranger, when he got mad, got even – but he did it in such a way that the person he was mad at had no idea of the shit storm that was coming their way. He was sneaky and effective. He followed the rules of the law and did it in such a way that no one could fault him. However, he put the person in a noose and tightened it around their neck without the person knowing that it was happening, and they only figured it out when he figuratively hung them. He made sure there was no escape.

No one brought out his instincts to hang people as much as when the person affected was someone he loved. When he found out my ex had hit me once, he looked into Dickie's life and had him charged with tax evasion. Dickie had recently been sentenced to six years in prison for it. When he discovered the identity of the man who had been stalking his daughter, he worked behind the scenes to get him deported to Honduras. That stalker would now be tried in a Honduran court. I had no idea what he'd do to my sister for making me cry at our wedding. I was sure that something was coming, however, and as much as I was angry at my sister, I just hoped that he wasn't too harsh in his revenge.

Ranger would always be protective, and he would always believe in the power of right and wrong, and the sense of justice. He felt that people deserved to be rewarded, or punished, for their actions, and he didn't think that punishment or reward necessarily came from the justice system. He felt that it was often more effective if delivered through karma…and he believed that sometimes karma needed a little nudge. If he was the person who delivered that little nudge, all the better.

"Can you get the flight details to me? I'll interview Simon and then meet Chastity and her guards at the airport so that we can transfer custody."

"That sounds good", said Ranger. "I'll let you know as soon as I know."

"While we were talking, I pulled up the information that you sent to me. You did a great job with the research and did a far more effective and thorough job than I could have done – or even our research department could have done. I can understand why Detective Morelli said that you are the best researcher that he has ever seen."

I smiled. "Any one of my team is just as good a researcher."

"And the TPD has access to this type of research whenever they want?" said Samantha.

"Within reason", I said. "It takes a while to do the research. The file that you received took me eight hours to do."

"We have found that, to do a thorough job, we have to put the time into doing the research", said Ranger. "We also have a number of research requests at any one time and have to siphon the requests through as quickly as we can. We are hiring more people so that there isn't much of a delay between submitting the research request and having that inquiry completed, but there is a bit of a delay."

"We put a priority on requests from policing organizations", I said. "The most that the TPD has had to wait has been a week for their research to be completed, and that was before we hired four more staff. We will soon be hiring another six staff, and I hope to have at least some of those people in place in another month."

"How does it work?" said Samantha.

"The police department pays a flat-rate retainer to be able to use our service", said Ranger. "This retainer is paid on a monthly basis and ensures that we have the staff complement available to do the work, as well as any needed upgrades to our computer search engines. That retainer gives the police access to the research department. From that point, any research that is done is charged by the hour, and our fee is seventy five dollars an hour. Research completed could be similar to what Steph did for you, or it could be the creation of capture plans used to locate criminals. A typical search takes roughly five hours."

"But this one took eight."

"Yes", I said. "This search took longer because I searched seven people. Sven and Ronald and Simon and the officer were fast, straightforward searches, and only took half an hour each. However, Bruno's took about an hour, and Chastity's and Sergei's took about two hours each. The last hour was spent pulling it all together and comparing and cross-referencing the various items in their dossiers. That was, for instance, when I realized the relationship between the deposits into Chastity's and Sergei's accounts."

"So if it was a straightforward search?"

"We'd only charge you for the time spent researching", I said. "We round it to the closest ten-minute increment when we do the billing."

"And you do this for Trenton and Newark?"

"Yes. It's a very popular service."

"I'd like to talk to my dad about what you can do. I would be shocked if he didn't want a proposal prepared for us to access your services."

"We can certainly do that", said Ranger. "If the Chief is interested, just have him give me a call."

"I should go. Brent and I will want to question Simon before Chastity gets back."

Ranger looked down at his phone. "You have some time. Chastity and her two guards are flying in early tomorrow morning, and won't arrive until seven minutes after eight."

"Good. That gives us all night to question Simon."

"Hopefully it won't take too long to break him", said Ranger.

Samantha laughed. "Wish us luck."

We said goodbye and Ranger and I looked at each other. Ranger smiled. "You did it again, babe. You keep wowing people with your research skills."

"It's not me. It's In-Spect."

"It's you, Steph", said Wes. "It's not the program. You were the one to look at the bank statements and notice the similarity in deposits. You were the one that noticed that Chastity's bank deposit was a tenth of Sergei's deposits. You were the one that thought about looking at the Interpol site and discovered Sergei's identity, and put it together with what was happening here in Atlanta. That wasn't In-Spect that did that. Yes, the program is good and does incredibly in-depth research. But you were the one to pull it all together and make something of what the program found out."

"I'm just amazed that you could find out all that information and analyze it", said Lizzie. "You did it in such a short period of time as well. From the sounds of it, Brent and Samantha have been spinning their wheels on this for a while, and in the period of about twenty-four hours you've given them the leads they need to charge and convict Sergei and Chastity."

"I wish", said Wes, "that I'd had access to your services when I'd been a policeman. It would have helped me convict many felons that I'd had to let go due to lack of evidence."


	16. Chapter 16

I apologized to Wes and Lizzie again as they left the suite to go to bed. Except for the last hour that I spent visiting with them, I had been hot on the scent and barely even noticed that they were there.

Lizzie laughed. "You should have seen Wes when he had a tough case in front of him when he was an officer", she said. "He would eat, sleep and dream about it. I fully attribute his success to his single-minded determination to do the best job that he could. That was before computers made information so much more available. He would have loved to have a researcher like you on his team. Don't ever be embarrassed about being dedicated to your job. It's what makes you an effective researcher, and that's what results in people getting convicted." I gave Lizzie a hug.

"I made an appointment for you at the spa tomorrow for ten", said Ranger. "I'm hoping you sleep until nine. You worked a lot of hours today, and I haven't forgotten your high blood pressure. Tomorrow I want you to spend the day relaxing."

"We have similar times", said Lizzie. "I'm having a mani-pedi done at ten-thirty."

I smiled. "What am I having done at the spa?" I said.

"You are having a detoxifying mud body treatment from ten to twelve, lunch at twelve to twelve-thirty, a facial at twelve-thirty to one-thirty, and a ninety-minute massage from one-thirty to three. I'm hoping that you'll then feel so relaxed that you'll come back here and sleep for an hour or two." I had to smile at how cute he looked. He was so pleased with himself for booking all those treatments for me.

"Wow! You did all that for me?"

Ranger kissed me on the lips. "You're worth it."

Lizzie smiled. "I have a similar day planned and, in fact, may be able to eat lunch with you. I have my mani-pedi at ten-thirty, lunch at twelve, an Indian scalp massage from twelve-thirty to one, then a ninety-minute massage from one to two-thirty. We'll be so relaxed and boneless from the treatments, we'll be oozing out of the spa."

I laughed. "I've never gone for a formal massage", I said. "Ranger has given me massages before, but I have never been to a real masseuse."

"Then look what you have to look forward to", said Ranger. He dropped a kiss on my nose before putting his arm around my shoulders and snugging me into his body. We said goodbye to Wes and Lizzie and, after we hung the 'do not disturb' sign on the door, we shut the door and Ranger turned me towards the bedroom. "You know what the difference between real massages and my massages is?" he said.

"Your massages are naked?"

Ranger smiled. "No. Real massages are naked as well", he said.

I looked at him in surprise. "They are?"

"Sure", said Ranger.

"Do you even take your underwear off?"

"Yes", said Ranger. "The masseuse will just drape towels over the interesting bits to try to make sure that you retain your dignity."

"So the difference is that, with your massages, there aren't any towels to cover the interesting bits?"

"Yes, but that's not the difference that I was thinking of."

"What difference were you thinking of?"

"I was thinking of all the places that I massage you, and some of those places aren't areas that any self-respecting masseuse would massage."

I smiled. "Really? Where are the places that you're thinking of? I'll have to pay attention tomorrow so that I can see if they are areas that the masseur releases tension. Maybe you should remind me tonight of the places that I shouldn't let the masseur touch."

"I think you already know", said Ranger.

"I think I could use a memory booster", I said with a grin. "After all, we are on our honeymoon and if there are places that a masseur shouldn't massage, you are the best person to teach me."

"I don't know. I'm awfully tired. It's been a long, upsetting day."

I looked at him and tried not to smile. "Hunh. I guess the honeymoon is over."

Ranger leaned down and gave me a kiss. "With you, babe, the honeymoon will never be over."

"I call dibs on the bathroom first", I said.

Ranger smiled. "Then again, maybe it is."

I laughed as I broke away from him and went into the washroom, brushed my teeth, washed my face, and used the facilities. I was out of the bathroom just a few short minutes later.

Ranger was already dressed in his sleep pants when I came out, and I started undressing as we changed positions and he went into the bathroom. When he came out, I was lying on my stomach in bed buck naked.

Ranger came to the bed and pulled down the duvet. He smiled when he saw my lack of clothes. "Do you know what one of the things I have always loved about you is?" he said.

"What's that?"

"Your efficiency." He kissed my shoulder blade, and then kissed down my spine to the small of my back.

"You know how I love you best?" I said.

"How's that?"

"Naked."

"You always were the impatient one."

I smiled.

"So where are the areas that the masseur shouldn't massage me tomorrow?" I said.

I could feel Ranger smile as he kissed my back. "Pretty well everywhere that I massage you tonight", he said. He worked his kisses down my body and sucked on the back of my knee. Goosebumps came up, and I shifted on the bed, restless with need. He propped me up on pillows and spread my legs, and as his hand dropped down to investigate one of those more interesting bits, he said, "the masseuse should definitely not be doing this."

"Really?" I said. "Then why am I going to him?"

By the time morning came, Ranger had thoroughly shown me the parts of my body that he didn't want the masseur to be touching several times. I guess he thought I needed a remedial lesson, because he showed me again before going down to the gym to work out for an hour. If lessons in school had been equally as enjoyable, I think I would have gotten higher marks. I certainly would have liked going to school a lot better.

I fell asleep after Ranger left, but woke up twenty minutes before he returned. My phone was ringing, and I rolled over and reached for it, still half asleep. "Hello?" I mumbled. The caller was an unrecognized number.

"Steph?" said Chastity. "I need help."

"Chastity? What's going on?" I checked the time. She would have landed just forty-five minutes before.

"I'm being arrested."

"What for?"

"I don't know. I haven't done anything wrong."

"You must have done something if they are arresting you. What have they said?"

"They said that they have proof that Sergei was running an extortion ring and I was a key player. But they are wrong. I didn't have anything to do with him."

"Other than the month you were dating him."

She sounded annoyed. "That goes without saying. Steph, they have cuffed me. They have taken me into the station and cuffed me at a table in an interrogation room and left me here to rot. I need you to come and get me."

"I can't do that. I have plans today."

"Your staff cuffed me and made me walk through the airport like a common criminal."

"I don't think you would have looked like a common criminal", I said.

"I have never been so embarrassed in my life."

"I'm sorry to hear that. If you hadn't run away on them, they wouldn't have cuffed you. It is as I told you the other day. Every action has a consequence. I'm sorry that you didn't like being cuffed, but it was for your own protection. We simply could not take the chance that you escaped your security detail again. They were there to protect you."

"Protect me! They brought me back to Atlanta and gave me to the police. I don't think they are doing a very good job at protecting me."

"The police aren't your enemies. You don't need protection from the police. Instead, the police are there to protect you. We did our jobs. We have protected you from Sergei, and while you are at the police station you will remain protected from Sergei."

"You have to come and get me. Maybe you can tell the police that I did nothing wrong."

"I'm sorry, but I can't help you. I have plans today."

"But Steph, I was given one phone call and I chose to call you. You have to help me."

"Chastity, I told you. I have plans and, even if I didn't have plans, I am leaving tomorrow and won't be back. I cannot take responsibility for you. You should have called someone like your stage manager friend, someone who is in town and is able to help you."

"What do you mean, to take on responsibility? I can look after myself."

"That's not how it appears", I said. "If you are charged, you will go in front of a judge and the judge will assign a court date. He or she will also decide as to whether bail will be awarded and how much bail will be for. That is known as the bail hearing. If you are awarded bail, you can pay the money to the court and you'll be allowed to walk free until your trial. When you show up for court, you get the money back. However, when bail is awarded they often ask for someone to be responsible for you, someone who will help you get to court on time. I am not that person. Since I don't live in Atlanta, I would never be considered qualified for the role. As I said, you would have been better contacting your friend. Simon, wasn't it?"

"I don't have the money to pay bail."

"Hopefully Simon does."

"You do."

"I find and capture people who have skipped bail. I don't pay bail for anyone. I'm sorry, but I can't help you."

"Steph, you have to help me."

"I don't think you understand, Chastity. I don't have to help you do anything. Ranger and I did, out of the kindness of our hearts, arrange for a private plane to transport you down to Miami. We did give you a place to stay and money to spend. We went above and beyond in helping you out of your situation. Your response to that was to run away from our help. Quite honestly, I don't feel like helping you any more when you have rejected the help that we gave. I don't trust that you won't run away again. You have brought this on yourself. I'm sorry."

"When did you get so harsh?" said Chastity. I could hear the resentment in her voice. "You've married a rich man, and you should be willing to share the wealth."

I sucked in a huge breath, and then said quietly, "we did share the wealth. We have spent tens of thousands of dollars on you, and you threw it back in our faces. I'm not willing to be used like that again. Figure out your own way out of your current dilemma. We already gave you one solution, and you decided not to take it. That's okay. You had the right to make that decision. However, I have the right to make a decision as well, and that decision that I am making is that we aren't going to offer you more help."

"You're a bitch, you know that? You've been a bitch ever since you dropped me on my neck."

"That was an accident."

"You owe me for that. I should sue you."

"How do you figure that? It happened over fifteen years ago. Isn't there some law that says that you can't sue after seven years? Besides, you haven't suffered a loss of income as a result of being dropped, and you haven't suffered physically or mentally from it either. I don't think that you would win a suit even if it had just happened yesterday."

"Fucking cunt. You don't deserve to be happy."

I could hear Samantha walk into the interrogation room and tell her that her time was up.

"You're a goddamned bitch", screamed Chastity. "I hope you go to Hell."

"Aren't you happy that you don't have to deal with me any longer then?" I said, and I hung up the phone.


	17. Chapter 17

I was still lying in bed trying not to cry when Ranger walked back in to the suite, and when he came through and saw me lying there curled into a fetal position, he said, "everything okay, babe?"

"Yeah. I just had a call from Chastity."

"Chastity! Isn't she at the police station now?"

"Yes. You know how you get one phone call?"

"What did she want?"

"She said that you were rich and I should come and pay her bail. She said that I owed her for dropping her when we were in high school."

"That's the biggest pile of bullshit that I have ever heard."

"That's basically what I told her."

"What was her reaction?"

"She called me several choice names at a high volume, and I heard Samantha come in and take the phone away from her. I hung up."

"Good for you. You are a good person, babe. You don't deserve any of this."

"It just hit me hard. It reminded me of what Val said at the wedding." I didn't understand why other people all thought that I didn't deserve Ranger or the life I was leading. I deserved a bit of happy as well, didn't I?

"Val was just as much in the wrong as Chastity was", said Ranger. "Both people are self-centered and selfish, and have their head shoved so far up their ass they can't see what is happening around them. You are a good person who does the best you can in every single goddamned situation. You have more love in your little finger than most people have in their whole body. You are warm, caring, kind-hearted and the best person I know. You're the kind of person that makes me want to be better, just so that I can be worthy of you. I don't know what I did to deserve you, but it must have been something really good." He pulled me up into a hug and kissed me tenderly. "I love you, okay?"

"I love you too." I sniffled and buried my nose in his shoulder.

He kissed me on the top of my head. "What would you like me to order for you for breakfast?"

I smiled. "Blueberry pancakes, please."

"With bacon?"

I smiled. Did Ranger know me or what?

"Hop in the shower and I'll wait for the food", he said.

I got up quickly and headed into the bathroom. "Shower with me?"

Ranger smiled. "No. I know what happens when we shower together, and you have that appointment in just over an hour. If we shower together, you will be very late."

"Suddenly a mud wrap doesn't sound appealing."

Ranger laughed. "I don't know. My sisters all told me that you'd love it, but personally it sounds a bit messy to me. You'll have to tell me what you think."

"I don't know why I'm having a shower so that I can get smeared with mud."

Ranger laughed again. "I'm sure you don't want evidence of our night mixing with the mud from today."

I paused. "Good point", I said. I raced into the bathroom and turned on the water, used the facilities and brushed my teeth, and had a fast shower. I was out and dried off in four minutes, and dressed in six. In a nod to the fact that I'd need to have a shower later, I didn't dry my hair. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't have to look good to be smeared with mud. I combed out my hair and turned to Ranger. "I can wait for the food now, if you want to shower."

"Is this a nice way of telling me that I stink?" said Ranger. I smiled, and Ranger laughed. "I probably do. I worked out for a long time this morning. I pushed my sprint portion on my run in lieu of a heavy bag."

"Oh no! Did you have another nightmare last night?" I knew from experience in the past few months that, when Ranger was unsettled, he liked to work on the heavy bag and punch, jab and kick out his stress. I rather thought that he was developing even more muscles since I was shot, if that was even possible.

"Yeah", said Ranger. His voice was filled with disgust. "Apparently coming in and seeing a knife sticking out of your hand was not good for my peace of mind."

"You should have woken me."

Ranger smiled. "I did. We made love. It was the best way to ground me."

I smiled. "I didn't know that I was supposed to benefit from your nightmares."

Ranger thought about smiling. "So did I", he said. "Making love with you is the most grounding thing that I have ever done. I wish in some ways that you had been with me when I was on some of the missions that I had been on. Then, I also had nightmares but there was no one that cared about me to ground me – and unlike some of the men I knew, I didn't partake of a one-night stand when I got back from my mission. I had learned with Rachel that one-night stands could have lifetime repercussions."

"But in some ways you are glad I wasn't there?"

"I wouldn't have wanted you near the danger."

I smiled, tiptoed up and gave him a kiss. "Now go shower", I said.

Ranger's lips quirked up and he walked into the bedroom and shut the door.

Ranger was able to shower but not shave before the food showed up. While I had ordered blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and bacon, Ranger ordered basically the opposite of mine. He ordered an egg white omelet with spinach and onions and mushrooms, a side of ham, and unbuttered toast. He said that he was looking forward to his breakfast. I didn't know how he could. It didn't look nearly as good as my blueberry pancakes.

"What are you doing today?" I asked as I popped a syrup-soaked pancake into my mouth and moaned in pleasure.

"I'm working with Wes on the change in ownership of the company. I will go over my plans with him, since we haven't had a chance to do that yet, and we'll call all the heads of the different locations to tell them about the change in ownership. I am also going to tell them that I will be working with each of them personally as I make the shift to me being head of the corporation, and to let them know that I will always be available to talk to them about any concerns that they have."

"Will they be in today? It's Saturday."

"Wes has set up phone appointments with each person starting at ten-thirty today. I know that it means that we are asking them to work on their weekend, but it isn't anything that anyone at Rangeman would even think twice of. We are allotting half an hour for each call, but I fully expect that it won't take more than ten minutes. Wes will be able to give me an overview of each of the locations and the people heading them as we take the time to prepare for each interview."

"That sounds great. I'm looking forward to hearing how it went."

Ranger smiled. "Me too", he said.

"Are you working from the suite here?" I said.

Ranger looked at me. "We are. However, we'll be finished our work by the time you come up from the spa, so I am hoping that we'll be able to have a nap together."

I stopped eating and stared at him. "You? Nap?"

"I didn't get a lot of sleep last night", said Ranger. "I could definitely use a top-up. Although this is our honeymoon and Hector informed me that all honeymoons required the bride and groom to come back from their vacation looking tired, I don't want to look exhausted."

"Somehow I don't think they meant tired because of nightmares."

"Precisely", said Ranger. "So the trick is to look tired but not too tired."

"You're very dedicated to the job", I said.

"I try to be. I would hate to be fired for failing to fulfill my responsibilities." He leaned forward and kissed me deeply. "My role as your husband, after all, is a role that I take very seriously."

"I admire your diligence."

"I have heard that diligence is how you are successful in your job."

I smiled. "I have never been called a job before."

Ranger thought about smiling. "My role as a husband is the most important job in the world. You, however, aren't a job. You are a responsibility and a joy, all in one."

"I'm a responsibility?"

Ranger's lips quirked up. "Yes, you are. I said it in my vows. I promised to love and cherish you, protect you and share with you, listen to you and love you. Those are all responsibilities that I have to abide by in front of God. Therefore, you are a responsibility as I try to fulfill my vows. But you are a joy as you are the best sort of responsibility that I could ever imagine. It's like Tia. When she is born, she will also be a responsibility. But she will also be a joy, and fulfilling that responsibility will make me just as happy as it makes me to look after you."

"Good save, mister."

Ranger grinned.

I looked at my watch. "I have to go." I got up and ran into the bathroom to brush my teeth, and seconds later was emerging to give Ranger a kiss. "I hope you have good meetings with everyone", I said. "I know you don't need it, but good luck with your day anyway."

"Thanks, babe. Enjoy the spa."


	18. Chapter 18

"Have you heard from Chastity at all?" said Lizzie at lunch. I had spent the morning doing the mud wrap, and I had to say that I agreed with both Ranger and his sisters. It was very messy, but I loved the way my skin felt now that the mud was off me. I wasn't too sure about it at the time, however, and had looked forward to the shower to remove the mud. The mud had made me hot, and I was someone who greatly hated being hot. My favorite seasons were fall and spring, in that order, followed by winter and finally, summer. I preferred fall over spring because of the nip in the air. I loved being able to wear sweaters and jackets but still wear cute footwear, something that winter didn't allow. The winter temperatures in Atlanta, in fact, were perfect for me. Having a mud wrap, no matter how much I loved the way my skin felt now, wasn't something I thought that I'd willingly sign up to do again.

"Chastity called me this morning, and demanded that I pay her bail and get her out of jail. She said that she hadn't done anything wrong and couldn't understand why she had been arrested. I told her that, if she hadn't done anything wrong, she would soon be released and there was nothing to worry about. She then told me that the Rangeman staff had treated her like a criminal and she had been embarrassed to be walking through the airport cuffed. I told her that it was a result of her running away and I was sorry that she didn't like the consequences, but that those were the consequences. I explained that the Rangeman staff had to do what it took to keep her safe. That was their mandate, and they had approval to do that any which way they wanted to. I also pointed out that it worked. She was safe and Sergei hadn't got her, so they had done a good job."

"What did she say to that?"

"She said they hadn't done a good job, as she had been captured by the police. I replied that they had done a good job, as she would be safe with the police and that Sergei couldn't get her there. I explained that their job wasn't to protect her from the police. Their job had been to protect her from Sergei and, since Sergei hadn't caught her, they had done a good job."

"What did she say?"

"She ignored me and told me that I should help her because she spent her one phone call calling me. I told her it was a waste of a phone call. She then told me that I owed her. She said that Ranger was rich, and he could afford the bail for her. More importantly, she said that I owed her for the time I dropped her in high school."

"You dropped her?"

"We were trying out for the cheerleading squad. Chastity was supposed to do a flip in the air and I was supposed to catch her. But a hornet came around and…well, I guess you can guess the rest. She landed on her neck and had to wear a brace for a month and sit on the bench while the cheerleaders learned and performed their routines. I wasn't accepted onto the squad, something that I wasn't particularly unhappy about. I had only tried out because my sister was the captain of the team, and I thought that I was expected to try out. I had always heard my parents' pride in my sister and her accomplishments."

"Did you try out for any other extracurricular activity?"

"I got accepted to be a baton twirler with all the other people who got rejected by the cheerleading squad. In my first performance, however, the baton got away from me and landed in the tuba. I had to do the rest of the moves without a baton, which was quite odd and apparently looked quite funny. Meanwhile the baton got very stuck in the tuba and the tuba couldn't play music for the rest of the performance. It took two janitors, a tub of Vaseline, and an Act of Congress to get that baton out of the tuba. So I was rejected from the baton twirler club as well. I then decided that I would get a part-time job, so applied for a job at the Tasty Pastry, a popular bakery in Trenton. The job was great. I gained ten pounds while working there, but I had some of my best times in that store." I smiled. My best time of all in that store, of course, was when I gave my virginity to Joe Morelli. He had earned the nickname of the Italian Stallion, and I had wanted to see if the name was accurate. He didn't disappoint me. Of course, he was even better as an adult. Unlike my ex-husband, Morelli focused on giving as much as getting and was a fun bed partner. Ranger, however, was better. "Anyway, I worked there throughout high school and college, and was able to help out in some of my college fees. My sister had gotten a scholarship, so that helped my parents pay for her college. I didn't get a scholarship but, because I had saved so diligently while working, I was actually able to contribute more to my college fund than my sister's scholarship contributed to hers."

"That would have been a good help for your parents."

"My dad was so happy about it that he bought me my first used car. It allowed me to live at home and travel in for my classes, which saved on residence fees." I smiled. "My car, like most people's first cars, had character."

"What was it like?"

"It had four-sixty air conditioning – four windows down going sixty miles an hour. The shifter came loose and you were constantly putting it back on to shift, and the ignition was gone so that you had to start it with a screwdriver. My mom borrowed my car once to go to the store and the screwdriver fell out in the middle of an intersection. The car stalled and my mother had to root around on the floor to find the screwdriver again to start the car up so that she could complete her left turn. After that, my dad was instructed to take the car to the junkyard and buy me a new car. I'm not exactly sure why. It was better than many of my cars that I have had in recent years."

"You've driven a lot of wrecks?"

"The most affordable place to go shopping for a car is the junkyard. After that, it's Auto Al's, but most of his cars are riddled with bullet holes. You have to be very careful that the bullet holes haven't punctured something important."

"Do you still drive wrecks?"

"Ranger doesn't like me driving wrecks. He considers it too dangerous, so he leases a Ford Explorer for me to use when I am skip tracing. He is planning to lease a new Lincoln Navigator as a family vehicle as well, for when the baby is born. That way we won't have to move the car seat in and out of the car. We'll be able to install it once, properly, and leave it there."

"That sounds good. Car seats are so important, but they are also such a pain to use at times. At least they now have the infant seats which have the detachable feature so that you can carry around the baby like they are in a bucket."

I laughed. "That's true. I know with my nieces and nephew that having the ability to carry around the baby that way is beneficial. It means that you don't have to wake up the baby when you arrive somewhere. You had two kids, didn't you?"

"We did. We have a boy and a girl, and they are joys to have. Wes wasn't sure that he wanted kids, but I desperately wanted children so he agreed to have them. And once they were born he became the most doting father you could ever imagine."

"Neither Ranger nor I wanted kids but, when we found out that I was pregnant, Ranger quickly became happy about the concept. I wasn't so sure of things. However, now that I've had some time to think about it and get used to the thought, I'm happy that we're expecting."

"I was a different generation, and when I had little children many of the neighborhood mothers stayed home. We would meet for coffee and let the kids play together. Now, most mothers work outside the home and those that choose to stay home are often isolated and lonely. There aren't any other kids for their little ones to play with, and there isn't the mental stimulation for the mothers. I'm not saying that staying at home is a bad thing. For some people, it works really well. I'm just saying that it's a harder road to travel than it was when my kids were little."

"My sister, for years, was a stay-at-home mother, and she always seemed very happy to me. However, I know that I would hate being a stay-at-home mother. I like my jobs too much and get too much in return from my job to want to give it up. For my sister, the concept of staying at home excites her. For me, it makes me want to cry. And I think that reaction proves that I should continue to work."

"Ranger would be upset to lose your talent as a researcher."

"That's what he said. We have arranged to hire someone to work as a combination bodyguard and live-in nanny when Tia is born. She's a wonderful person and I have no doubts that she'll be a good nanny, and both Ranger and I get along with her well. She'll be a good addition to the family."

"I've never known anyone who has had a nanny before."

I smiled. "Me neither. In the neighborhood where I grew up, you either stayed home with your kids or wished that you were staying home with your kids. If you had to go out to work, you did it for financial reasons and you got a neighborhood mother to look after the kids while you were gone. It is a shift in thought for my family to think that I don't have to go out to work but am still choosing to. In fact, with hiring Amelia, it is actually going to cost us more for me to go out to work than it will for me to stay home with the kids. However, Ranger says he wants me to be happy and he wants Tia to be well-cared for, and it if costs us more money than I earn to be able to achieve both of those things, then that is okay. He is incredibly supportive."

"That's the way a relationship is supposed to be", said Lizzie with a soft smile.


	19. Chapter 19

By the time I returned to the suite, I was relaxed and sleepy and looking forward to a nap. I opened the door and waved to Ranger. He was on the phone with someone, and he blew me a kiss as I walked through to the bedroom and climbed into bed. Wes had rearranged the dinner reservations for that evening for seven o'clock, and since it was only three-thirty I had lots of time to sleep and have a shower and get ready.

Ranger didn't come through until almost five, and I sleepily opened my eyes as he climbed into bed. "Did you have good meetings?" I said as I woke up.

"Yes", said Ranger. "I talked to each of branch managers and said that they were now Executive Directors, and we talked a little about their backgrounds and strengths and weaknesses. I liked all of them except one, and that's the one in Little Rock. He seemed a little too full of himself, and Wes said that he was the one hire that he regretted. It is, however, the city that I already had someone that I wanted to bring in to lead the Emergency Response Teams there, and I can easily switch him to being the person who leads the branch in its entirety. That's who I was talking to when you came back. He's that friend of mine from PMC." PMC was the group of mercenaries that Ranger was a founding member and part-owner of the company, and the friend that Ranger was talking about was another part-owner of the company who had also retired and was now looking for a security job that would allow him to work close to home, and wouldn't require him to travel. "I was feeling Bill out as to the potential of him working for me, and he seemed quite positive about the idea. He doesn't need to work and can easily live off PMC's dividends, so he has been waiting for just the right opportunity to come along. He said that he would love to work with me again, and the concept of leading his own team and the autonomy that I'll be giving him is enticing to him. It looks like I will have to go to Little Rock for a few days, both to let the existing director go and to hire Bill and to meet his team."

"Okay."

"I'm sorry, babe. I know that I promised less travel."

I smiled. "I knew that you'd have to travel with this expansion, and I'm okay with that. Just as long as you are safe. That's all that matters."

"I'll probably go in another two or three weeks."

"Okay."

"I'll want Amelia to stay with you while I am gone", said Ranger.

"Okay."

He sighed. "You realize that I'm going to have nightmares again while I am gone and for some time after I get back."

I kissed him on his pecs. "I know", I said. "If having Amelia live in our apartment while you are gone makes you feel more comfortable, then by all means have her stay."

"Will having her there make you feel more comfortable? I know that you said that you often suffer from nightmares when I'm not there as well."

I smiled. "Probably. She isn't going to be there to cuddle into in the middle of the night, but I think it would be helpful knowing that there is a trained bodyguard in the apartment with me."

Ranger smiled. "I'm glad that she won't be there to cuddle in the middle of the night." He paused. "Although, that would be hot."

I gave him a mock hit to his stomach. "Hey, watch it!" I said. "Am I not enough for you? Or are you saying that you are so good in bed that you need two women at a time to keep up?"

Ranger laughed. "You are more than enough for me. I'm only kidding about the two women-thing. I personally never saw the appeal. I wouldn't want to split my attention like that, but would rather focus on one person at a time."

"You could always focus on one person and then, when they are satisfied, focus on the other person."

"Apparently neither of those two people are you, because when I am finished satisfying you I am so relaxed and satisfied myself that I can't imagine turning around and satisfying another person. That would take something that is joyous and turn it into work, and making love should never be considered work."

I kissed him again on his chest. "Good recovery", I said. I could feel Ranger's chest rumble in laughter as he kissed me of the top of my head. "Are you tired?" I said.

"Depends", said Ranger. "What were you thinking?"

"All this talk about making love is giving me ideas."

"You want me to call in another woman out of the hall?"

I snorted. "I wouldn't want to turn love-making into work."

"You are always so thoughtful of me."

I smiled. "I try. Wasn't that in our vows? To love and cherish?"

"Is being thoughtful part of cherishing someone?"

"I think so", I said. "We can define cherishing someone however we want."

He kissed me on the top of my head again, and he moved his hands up and down my side. "You're all oily. It's kind of hot."

"Do you have sex on your brain today?" I said. "Everything is turning you on."

"What can I say? Buying companies and spending millions of dollars is an aphrodisiac, I think. Either that it's because I'm on my honeymoon with the sexiest woman that ever lived."

I thought about that for a moment. "Nope. I think it's because you spent a lot of money."

"Is it an aphrodisiac for you?" said Ranger.

I snorted again. "Not at all", I said. "I'm not turned on by money the way that some women are."

Ranger smiled. "That's one of the things I love about you. You love me for me, not because I have a lot of money."

"I would never have known that you had as much money as you do if you hadn't told me."

"I've always figured that money was there to be used and it can make your life more comfortable. However, I don't think it needs to be flaunted or that it makes you a better person. It's just something that we are lucky to have enough of to do what we want."

"So if I wanted to buy a tropical island?"

Ranger smiled. "We might not have enough for that, unless you were talking about a very small island."

"Pity."

"You want an island?"

I laughed. "No, actually I don't. I'm very happy living where we live, and we have designed our new apartment to be everything I have ever dreamed my ideal house would be."

"That's good, because internet reception on an island sucks these days."

I laughed. "What about you? Have you ever wanted an island?"

Ranger smiled. "I have everything I need on the mainland. I have my very sexy wife, the home that I've always wanted, a baby on the way…the only thing that would make it better would be for Julie to live in the same state and able to visit more frequently."

"She said that you told her that she could come up any time, and that all she had to do was let you know when she was available so that you could book a plane ticket."

"Do you mind? I'd like to spend more time with her."

"Are you kidding? I think it's great! I also like spending time with her. She's a great kid, and the more time she gets with her little sister, the better it will be for Tia. Julie has such a good head on her shoulders that I can't imagine it being anything other than positive for both her and the baby to spend time together."

"Julie was asking me whether she could consider University of Pennsylvania as somewhere to go when she graduates from high school. She said that she's starting to look around at places now that she's almost fourteen, and she thought with it just being an hour away, she'd be able to come home on weekends. She said she'd like to learn how to ski. She seems to have it all planned out, and she said that now that she will have a dedicated room, she thought that she'd be able to do that."

"I'd like that. What do you think?"

Ranger's face softened. "It surprises me that she'd want to. I know that she and her mom are close, and Ron is a good stepdad to her."

"Yes, but you are her dad and that's a relationship that she values."

"I'm still a bit shocked about it. After all, I haven't spent a lot of time with her, considering."

"Yes, but you've spent enough time with her for her to realize and accept your essential goodness and your unconditional support of her. She knows that you love her and that you would do anything for her, even give up your life for her. She feels safe with you."

"It makes me feel good to know that she wants to come and visit more."

"Maybe we should consider having her up one weekend a month so that she can get used to the weather, and to get to know her sister better. That might make it easier for her when she goes to school. UPenn is an incredibly hard university to get into though. Do you think she'll have the marks?"

"Rachel told me that Julie has the highest marks in her school. Not her grade, but the school in total, despite having skipped a year. She loves athletics and she has determined that she will be the best in everything in school and is willing to do what it takes to make sure she is. She's a runner and loves to run each day, and she's a swimmer on the swim team at school. She has set records in the pool for the fastest swimmer for her age in her area. She is in aikido as well. She's incredibly active and swims three hours a day and runs another hour, and three times a week goes to the dojo."

"Sounds like she takes after her father."

"She takes after her mother academically. Rachel was always good in school, and Julie will work at something until she is the best that she can possibly be – and then she'll work at it more to see if she can get better. My worry is that she is putting too much pressure on herself to do well and isn't taking enough time to just be a kid. There aren't many times in your life where it is okay to make a lot of mistakes, but being a kid is one of them and I worry that she isn't giving herself enough of a break. I know that Rachel is worried about the same thing."

"Why is she trying so hard?"

"I don't know." I waited while he thought about it. "I worry that she is so directed in an effort to try to earn my love."

"Then this summer will hopefully help with that", I said. "With spending a significant amount of time with us, she should relax and realize that we like her for her, and that she doesn't have to do anything special to earn our love. She has it just for being the person she is."

"You make it sound so easy."

"I don't mean to", I said. "I don't think it is easy. I do, however, think that it will happen naturally. As you said, you haven't spent a lot of time with her and that ease in knowing that you are loved comes best from regular and unstructured interaction. Just remember what it was like for you when you were growing up. It was probably the family meal times that made you most feel like a member of the family, and made you feel accepted and loved for who you are. I know that was one of the most important times in my life while growing up, anyway. It was the time when we all came together and worked as a unit."

"That's true. Do you think that we might be able to stop her from being so hard on herself?"

"I think that some of that is inherent to her, but we might be able to moderate it a bit."


	20. Chapter 20

Ranger and I met Wes and Lizzie again in their suite, and Wes invited us to have a drink with them before we got going for the evening. They brought out a bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling wine. "I don't know what this is like", said Wes. "To tell you the truth, I've never had to buy non-alcoholic sparkling wine before." Ranger and I laughed as we accepted a glass each from Wes. "We have much to celebrate tonight", said Wes. "We have your new union. May your marriage be long and happy." He looked at his wife and smiled. "I know from experience that being with the right person is magical, and that you will be rewarded in ways that you can never imagine." He turned to us again. "We also have your baby to celebrate. I know that baby Tia will be a beautiful baby and that you will both be wonderful parents. And finally, we have the sale of my company to you. I have done the best that I can with the company, but it is time to pass the baton on. I know that you will do wondrous things with the company and I could not imagine a better person to take over the reins. This is a good day."

Ranger smiled. "Thank you, Wes. We have both achieved a lot – five years for me and a little longer for you. I appreciate you letting me purchase your company and I will try to do you proud."

Wes smiled. "I know you will. I might not have sold if you weren't willing to purchase the company. I really couldn't let it go to just anyone."

"I understand that and appreciate your vote of confidence."

Wes smiled. "I know." He turned to his wife. "Do you want to do the next part?"

"It would be my pleasure", said Lizzie. She took a sip of her wine, and then put her glass down.

"I am excited that Wes has sold the company for selfish reasons", she said, "because it means that he will have more time at home with me. However, I am also excited for you two and the baby. I loved having children. Our two were Wes's and my pride and joy. At times, they were the reason we'd keep fighting, and at other times they'd be the reason we'd keep standing. I wouldn't have missed out on a single minute. So when Wes told me that you were expecting, Wes and I knew that we had to do something for your baby." Lizzie and Wes went into their bedroom while Ranger and I looked at each other in confusion. They came out wheeling a jogging stroller. On top of the stroller were a number of packages. "I knew that we wouldn't be able to get up to Trenton for your baby showers, so we brought a shower to you", she said. "I thought, with a jogging stroller, Ranger would be able to go for a run with the baby. Also, the wheels are bigger and will be able to handle snow banks better. We also bought a number of smaller presents." She looked at the pile and turned a little red. "I went a little overboard since I was so happy for you."

"If you think this is bad, you should have seen it when our daughter was pregnant", said Wes. "Lizzie just likes to shop for baby things."

"It's just that babies are so happy", said Lizzie.

I smiled. "Thank you for doing all this for us", I said. "I don't know what to say."

"Open this one first", said Lizzie. She handed me a box. I unwrapped it to find a tiny cream velour sleeper with a tan giraffe on it. "We didn't know whether you were having a boy or a girl, so we tried to pick unisex things."

"It's adorable", I said.

Lizzie passed another box to me, and I passed it to Ranger to open. He looked surprised, but I thought that I shouldn't have all the fun. He opened it to find three sets of little baby booties. One looked like a pair of running shoes. Another box held two bucket hats. The next box contained several large receiving blankets. "I made them myself", said Lizzie. "The ones they sell in stores are often too small to swaddle a baby with, and I know that our babies loved to be swaddled." I looked at the blankets. They were made from two layers of thick flannel, and in the corners she had embroidered two tiny giraffes with their necks intertwined in a cuddle. Embroidered hearts were scattered around the giraffes.

"You should open a business for them", I said. "These are wonderful and I know that Tia will like them immensely."

"Second last present", said Lizzie as she smiled. She handed the box to Ranger, and he opened it to find a lambskin made with short wool. "This is specially designed for a baby's use", said Lizzie. "The short wool makes it safe for babies, and the lambskin is durable enough to wash in the washer. When my babies were little I would cover a sheepskin with a flannel sheet, and it was comfortable for babies to lie on and would help keep them warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It was nice for them to roll around on, and it made it easy for me to carry them from one room to another. I would just pick them up and carry them like a sling, then plop them on the floor beside me wherever I was. I never had to worry about them rolling off the sofa or the chair that way. It worked so well. My parents were Australian, and that's what they use for babies there. I know it isn't common here, but our kids loved them and, when they had children of their own, they wanted sheepskins as well."

I ran my hand over the soft wool. "This will be lovely against the baby's skin. Thank you."

Lizzie smiled. "It will be one of your favorite and most useful baby's things."

"Now my present", said Wes. He pulled out an envelope and handed it to Ranger. Inside were two checks, each for a million dollars. Both checks were made out to Ranger. One had Julie's name on the memo while the other had Tia's name. "Lizzie and I didn't want Julie to feel left out. She's an important part of your life just as much as Tia will be, and we wanted to give her the money to go to school and not have to think about diverting her attention from schoolwork or social activities. We thought you could invest it on her behalf until she is ready for college. The other check, again for you to invest, is for Tia to go to college herself. Both of us think that higher education is so important and, as time goes on, it is more and more needed to get the good jobs."

"That's too generous", said Ranger. He looked equally as floored by the gift as I was.

"Nonsense", said Wes. "You have made Lizzie and me richer than we have ever imagined. You have taken our baby and are going to make it bigger and better than I ever could. You have made us happy to watch you rise from being a retired Ranger to a successful business owner, and now that you are married and are expecting a baby…it's perfect and we want to celebrate that."

Ranger got up and shook Wes's hand, and kissed Lizzie. I also gave kisses to both of them. "Thank you", said Ranger. His voice was husky. "It means a lot to us."

"Let's go eat now", said Wes. "Baby showers make me hungry."

Lizzie laughed. "At least at this shower the food won't all be cut into bears and pacifier shapes."

Wes stopped and stared at his wife. "They really do that?" he said.

"Yes."

"If they cut the sandwiches into bears and pacifier shapes, what do they do with all the salvages that they cut off?"

Lizzie smiled. "Give them to the men."

Wes laughed. "There are benefits to having baby showers dedicated typically for just women", he said. "To fill me up, you'd need a lot of pacifier sandwiches."

"Tell me about it", said Lizzie. "You eat more than anyone I have ever met."

"Good metabolism", said Wes.

I laughed as I piled all our presents onto the baby stroller, and wheeled the contraption to the door. Ranger held the door for me and then opened the door to our suite. He walked into the bedroom and placed the two checks in the hotel safe with the computer. When we were finished putting away our things, Ranger and I joined Lizzie and Wes.

Wes took us to a steakhouse for dinner. "This isn't the fanciest steakhouse in town", said Wes, "but it does serve the best food and has the widest selection. Besides, this is the restaurant that Ranger and I went to when we signed our deal to work together in the first place." He turned to Ranger. "Do you remember?"

"I do", said Ranger. "I had a shrimp linguine that was to die for. I went home and tried to recreate it. I was never successful, however."

"I think they still have it on the menu", said Wes, "so you can taste it again and get a refresher on how it is made."

"Don't ask me for help in figuring it out", I said as I looked at him.

Ranger laughed. "I married you for many things, babe, but cooking wasn't one of them."

"Do you not like to cook?" said Lizzie.

"I can't stand it", I said. "I'm surrounded by great cooks and it is only by Ranger's encouragement that I have learned how not to burn water."

Lizzie laughed.

"You laugh", I said. "My best culinary masterpiece is a peanut butter and olive sandwich."

"I ate processed cheese and dill sandwiches when I was pregnant", said Lizzie.

Ranger laughed. "This isn't a pregnancy thing. Steph ate them regularly before I had even met her, and long before she had the excuse of being pregnant."

"Oh my", said Lizzie.

Wes looked fascinated. "So if you had company over, what would you serve?"

"Probably a frozen lasagna with extra cheese added to make it taste homemade, a Caesar salad from a kit sold in the grocery store, and a crusty loaf. You wouldn't starve. It just wouldn't be as good as what Ranger would cook for you. He would make that lasagna from scratch, wash and tear the lettuce leaves himself and, while he was at it, add fresh mushrooms and real bacon bits to the salad, before adding a homemade dressing, and serve them both with a warmed crusty loaf straight from the warming drawer. My meal would fill the tummy. Ranger's would make you want to go back for seconds and thirds. He's an excellent cook and is a much better cook than I could ever be."

The conversation stalled for a moment so that we could all read the menu. I selected the prime rib with mashed potatoes and sautéed carrots and parsnips and sugar snap peas. I had never had a parsnip before I had been at Ranger's family's house for the first time. I hadn't known what they were. I have loved them ever since. They were sweet but healthy – the ideal combination.

"Do you not know the basics?" said Lizzie as we picked up the conversation thread again.

"I do", I said. "I'm good on making ham and swiss sandwiches, pouring a bowl of cereal, and heating up leftovers in the microwave. However, actually cooking things from scratch is beyond me. I'm excellent at following instructions on how to heat up frozen meals though."

"The instructions for heating up frozen things are very similar to the instructions in a recipe", said Lizzie.

"Thank you", said Ranger. "I keep telling Steph that she has the potential to turn into a good chef. She has just never received the encouragement."

"Did no one teach you when you were growing up?" said Lizzie.

"They tried", I said. "But after the fourth time I set the kitchen on fire, my mom gave up and quietly steered me into keeping my father company while he watched sports on television. I may not have developed a good sense of what flavors went with what flavors, but I have developed a good sense of what play in football is a good one. Most Thanksgivings are spent with Mom and Grandma and my sister in the kitchen cooking up a storm, and my dad and I watching the game on the television, screaming our heads off when our team makes a good play. And everyone is happy."

"If that's what works for you", said Wes, "then that is good."

"I'm going to teach Steph a little about cooking", said Ranger. "When the baby is born, I'll be cooking both breakfasts and dinners, and Steph can learn the basics then. She is so nervous about cooking that she is abnormally nervous, and instead of saying that she has never done it before and giving herself the opportunity to make mistakes she expects herself to churn out masterpieces. It will be fun to do something like that together."

I made a face. "Sure", I said. "Just you wait, and you'll see how useless I really am."

"I have been a trainer for a long time. No one is useless. You just haven't had the proper environment to learn in."

"Your parents own a restaurant, don't they?" Lizzie asked Ranger.

He nodded. "Cooking was always a big part of my family culture, and eating was always a celebration and a family function. We never ate separately. We always came together for a family meal, whether that was at the restaurant or at home, and even now when we get together food is still a big part of our celebration."

"So you can really cook", said Lizzie.

Ranger smiled. "I can get by."

I laughed. "Ranger cooks the best food that I have ever tasted", I said. "You'll have to come up to Trenton so that Ranger can cook for you."

Lizzie smiled sadly. "That sounds good, but I think our days of travelling are over."

Wes looked at her with tears in his eyes. "Lizzie saw the doctor last Tuesday. She's been given two to four months to live."

I reached across and squeezed Lizzie's hand. "I'm so sorry", I said.

Lizzie sighed sadly. "Yeah, me too", she said.


	21. Chapter 21

The dinner was lengthy and filled with laughter, a true celebration. And as Lizzie and Wes said goodnight to us back at the hotel, Lizzie's eyes filled with tears. "It means so much to me that you've spent so much of your time with us over the past few days", she said. "This is what life is all about. Connections and caring." She turned to Ranger. "You take care of your wife. She's a good one. And always remember that family is everything. Thank you for being an adopted member of our family. It was a good day when Wes ran into you at that bank robbery."

"That's how you met? At a bank robbery?" I said.

Lizzie smiled. "Ranger didn't tell you? You'll have to get him to tell you the story sometime." She kissed me on the cheek, then kissed Ranger. "Take care of each other", she said.

Wes kissed me on the cheek, then shook Ranger's hand before giving him a back-slapping manly hug. "Come down and see us again", he said.

"Will do", said Ranger. He leaned over and gave Lizzie a kiss. "The next time I come, I want your recipe for potato scones", he said. He turned to me. "Lizzie's potato scones are the best that I have ever tasted. I'd like to make them for you and Julie and Tia this summer."

"Do you think you'll be down here again before the summer then?" said Lizzie. Her eyes lit up and that's when I truly realized how much Ranger meant to her and Wes.

"Steph probably won't make it, just because it will be harder for her to take the time off work when she is training new staff and because she won't be cleared for travel too much longer. However, I should be down here several times before the baby is born."

"You'll have to send us pictures of the baby after she is born", said Wes.

"She'll be the prettiest baby ever", said Lizzie. She tiptoed up to give Ranger another kiss. "Thank you for everything", she said. "Because of you, I had another five years of life with Wes and, you'll find this with Steph, every second of life together is precious and a blessing." She turned to Wes. "I'm tired, husband. Take me to bed."

Wes smiled. "I have to go. It's not every day that you hear your wife demanding you to take her to bed."

Ranger laughed and gave Wes and Lizzie another hug before turning to our door and unlocking it. He guided me inside and turned on the light. I kicked off my shoes and walked into the bedroom to repack them in my suitcase. "You okay?" I said as Ranger remained quiet.

Ranger sighed. "Yeah. I just feel bad for Wes and Lizzie. They have a great marriage. They are close and loving, the kind of marriage where they can finish each other's sentences because they know each other so well. They adore each other and are each other's best friends and supporters. They have the kind of relationship that I know we'll have in a few years. We already have the beginnings of it now. Wes will be decimated when Lizzie passes. He told me that it was the main reason he was selling. Yes, he thought that he had taken the company as far as it could go, and he thought that I could develop it further myself. However, he also sold it to us so that he could spend Lizzie's last days with her, so that they could maximize their time together, and so that the company wouldn't flounder while he was prostrate with grief afterwards. He said that he's barely functioning now, and he doesn't know how he'll keep breathing after she dies. As he said, she's his life. I know what that feels like. You're my life as well, and I too would be pulverized if something happened to you."

"I know. I feel the same about you."

"I told Wes that, any time he wants to come back and work for the company again, to let me know. He really is the best trainer for security guards that I have ever seen, and I could hire him on as just a trainer that travels from location to location. It would be a job without the stress. He thanked me and told me that he would keep it in mind. He said, at this point, it is too soon to even think about what he's going to do after she passes."

"How do you feel about Lizzie being sick? It's obvious that you are close to her."

"I am close to both of them. When Wes and I broke up the partnership, there were no hard feelings. We just, together, made the decision that it would be better for us to separate. Since then, we've been each other's supporters and mentors. When we had a problem that we were having trouble solving, we would phone the other person and talk it out. I could always be assured of Wes listening to me fully and thinking about the problem before speaking. He's been there through every step of Rangeman's success, and I've been there through every step of Pearl's. Likewise, Wes and Lizzie have heard so much about you over the years. They were the first ones to suspect that we were going out together and were so supportive of you despite you never having met them. They are good people." He stopped and swallowed hard.

I stepped up to him and wrapped my arms around his middle and hung on tight. Ranger shuddered in a breath. "I don't want her to die", he said brokenly.

I kissed the hollow of his throat. "I know", I said. "Neither do I."

Ranger ran his hands up and down my back and buried his nose in my hair and sniffed. Slowly, I felt the tension leave his body. "I love you", he said.

I kissed him on his lips. "I love you too."

Ranger let me go and turned me around, undid the zipper and pulled my dress over my head, and then slowly undressed me until I was naked. He savored every new inch of flesh that was revealed, worshiped my body until I felt loved and cherished, and as we finally came together I felt the perfection of our marriage, the complete rightness of being together, and I almost wept with the beauty of the moment.

Ranger pulled me into his body as we snuggled afterwards, and he held me tightly. We didn't need to say anything. There were no words to describe everything I was feeling, the closeness, the sense of being at one with Ranger. My heart was spilling over and tears came to my eyes. "You okay, babe?" said Ranger as the tears spilled over.

"It's just so damn perfect", I said. I sniffled.

Ranger kissed each eyelid, and then my lips, before easing back. "I know", he said. "I feel it too."

I burrowed into his chest and sniffed deeply. Even though he was using hotel-provided soap in the shower, he still smelled faintly of Bulgari Green, and I wondered if that was just his natural fragrance. It would explain why he always smelled so good, even when his skin should have lost the scent of his body wash.

As I sniffed, Ranger molded my skin with his hand as he rubbed me up and down my side. Slowly, my tears stopped and I fell asleep.

I woke up the next morning still cuddled into Ranger. He kissed me lightly on both cheeks, my lips and my nose before easing back. "Good morning", he said softly.

"Good morning", I said in a sleep-roughened voice.

"Did you sleep well?"

"I did. You didn't go for a workout this morning?"

Ranger smiled sadly. "I had another nightmare last night, and I really just needed to cuddle you and know that you were okay. I might exercise when we get home."

"Was I getting shot again?"

"No, this time you were getting stabbed with a knife, and the man tried to cut baby Tia out of you."

"I'm sorry that you are having nightmares. It must make you scared to go to sleep."

"It feels, when we go to sleep, a little like playing Russian roulette. I never know when the bad dreams are going to come."

"I'm sorry."

"Not your fault."

"But I'm the one that is always in danger. I keep feeding into your fears."

"You don't ask to be put into danger, babe. It isn't your fault. Take for example this time. You were just being a good friend, and the person you were helping wasn't being truthful with you. That wasn't your fault. You did nothing wrong."

Ranger's watch alarm sounded, and Ranger twisted around to turn it off. "What time is it?" I said as I yawned.

Ranger kissed me in my forehead. "Time to get moving if we want to make our flight."

I smiled. "No time to shower together?"

"Babe, there is nothing I'd like more. However, we don't have much time and we still have to get breakfast. And to tell you the truth, the next time I'm with you I want to be in our bed, in our apartment, and I want to make you cry out my name in pleasure so loud that the birds are startled from their roosts in the trees." I swallowed hard. "And we don't have nearly enough time for that."

"Pity", I said on a strangled whisper. Ranger smiled.

He kissed me on my forehead again, threaded his fingers through my hair and gave my head a scalp massage. When I was just about purring in pleasure, he kissed me on my lips and eased away from me. He pulled himself from the bed and walked through to the bathroom. I was feeling a little uncomfortable with need, but I felt vindicated when I saw the tenting going on in Ranger's midsection. I apparently wasn't the only one suffering after hearing his words.

As Ranger finished in the bathroom, I packed my things in my suitcase and pulled out the yoga pants and cotton gray and white striped pullover that I wanted to wear back to Trenton. Tank would be picking us up at the airport, and Ranger would be talking shop with him all the way back to Rangeman. Between the flight and the shop talk, I knew I would want to be comfortable, and things didn't get much more comfortable than yoga pants.

I used the facilities while Ranger selected his clothes for the day, and I brushed my teeth while Ranger had his shower. He was done seemingly seconds later, and I asked him whether he had used soap.

"Yes. Why?" he said. He looked adorably confused.

"It's just that you were so fast that I wasn't sure that you had time to use soap."

Ranger smiled. "When you're in the army, you learn how to take short showers. There are only so many showers and there are lots of people to siphon through, and there is only so much hot water. Short showers are the norm and, if you are one of the last people having your shower, the chances are most likely that your shower will be a cold one."

"Sounds lovely", I said with a mock shiver. "Just another reason to not join the army."

"Just another reason? What's wrong with the army? It did good things for me."

I smiled. "One – being away from home. I would miss my family too much although the way I'm feeling right now I wouldn't miss Val. Two – no time to eat although, to be honest, that wouldn't be a problem for me. Three – needing to eat bugs and bark and sleep on the hard ground. I like my creature comforts. And now four – cold showers. I'm definitely not feeling the call to arms."

Ranger smiled. "It's not all bad. There's a camaraderie with the other men and women that can't be replicated anywhere outside the military."

"Not even at Rangeman? It seems to me that we have a strong team that supports each other well."

"We do, and we have the closest thing to a military camaraderie that I have seen outside the military structure. However, it's not the same."

"Perhaps that is partly because we don't feed the staff bugs and make them sleep on the hard ground. They don't need to commiserate in their pain."

Ranger laughed.

I stepped into the shower and turned the water on. "I'll use soap", I said, "and although my shower will be short, in army standards I'll be having a shower marathon."

Ranger ran the sink of water so that he could shave and laughed as he spread some lather on his face. "Anything over three minutes was considered a shower marathon."

I laughed. "I always wanted to be a marathoner. It's just that usually, to be a marathoner, it involves running and I don't do that."

"I like to run. I've been thinking about signing up for a marathon."

"Then I'll meet you at the end with a towel and a sports drink. That's my kind of sport."

Ranger laughed.


	22. Chapter 22

Samantha called just before we were about to board. "I have good news and great news", she said.

"This sounds promising", I said.

"We have interviewed Simon and Chastity for hours. You were right. Simon was the weak link. He said that he had met Chastity when she applied for the job as a dancer. There were no positions open but, because she was such a good dancer, he had told her that he would hire her if something happened to one of the dancers. A week later, one of the dancers was mugged and he hired Chastity. They became friends from that point on. He was, in fact, living in her apartment with her. He told me a lot about their friendship, but some of it sounded a bit sexual, so I asked him if he was just friends with Chastity. He said yes and looked offended that I would even ask. However, I suspected there is something happening beneath the sheets there. So once we established that friendship and we said that things would go a lot more smoothly if Chastity told us everything that was happening, and told him that we knew Chastity was involved but suspected that she was working for Sergei, we left him to think about that for a moment. Then we came back and told him that Chastity was in custody and was coming back from Miami. So I asked him again whether they were lovers, and he said they were but they were keeping it quiet because of Sergei.

"After that, he told us what was going on. Apparently they became friends and at first they were attracted to each other but didn't want to act on it because of Chastity's involvement with Sergei. But then Simon needed a place to stay and Chastity invited him to live with her, and proximity being what it was they started sleeping together. At that point, they decided they were in love and couldn't live without the other person, so they developed an escape plan. They knew that Sergei wouldn't let Chastity just leave since she knew so much about the operation. I asked him whether she was collecting his extortion money, and he confirmed that she was. She had added ten percent to the cost when she collected it and skimmed that money before she gave it to Sergei. She and Simon were saving that money for escaping. They were planning on going down to Mexico and getting away from Sergei for forever. In the meantime, Chastity continued to play the loving girlfriend."

"She was running a scam."

"Exactly. So they did that for a while, selling jewelry and skimming the top off the extortion money, and they almost had enough when Sergei figured out that she was scamming the money. He phoned her and told her he wanted the money just before her show, and that's why she looked scared."

"There was no murder?"

"No. There was just a boatload of money. While Chastity was with you, Simon was arranging for alternate identification to be made for both him and Chastity. When she called him from Miami, they arranged to meet each other in Florida after the fake ID had been finished being made and take a cruise ship to Mexico from there. They had plans to live quietly in a small town on the coast."

"Is that the good news or the great news?"

"That was the good news. So I changed Simon from a person of interest to an accessory. Then Chastity arrived."

"This is going to be good."

"Oh, yeah. So I told her that Simon had been arrested for extortion, and she rolled over. Apparently love does wondrous things in getting people to talk. She confirmed that she had blackmailed the owner at Kinky Boots into the job and that she had danced there for three years."

"She told us seven."

"She told us three, which Detective Morelli confirmed when I took a break and called him. I went back in and talked to her, and she said that she had taken a holiday and met Sergei, and she thought he was the most amazing man that she had ever met. It was a matter of like minds meeting, and he offered her a job helping him in his extortion ring. She accepted and left Kinky Boots shortly afterwards to move down to Atlanta. She applied for a job with Burlesque and met Simon and they hit it off. He told her that she would have the job if something happened to one of the dancers, and she told Sergei that. Sergei helped her and in a move reminiscent of Tonya Harding, Jayne Santos's leg was broken. She reported someone small and strong as her attacker. Sergei is only 5'6", so he is quite small for his size. Chastity confirmed that Sergei was the one that broke Santos's leg. He did it to get into her good books, and told her that the job was now open in Burlesque."

"Nothing says love like a little assault?"

"Exactly. So she started going out with Sergei and dancing in Burlesque, and in return for breaking Santos's leg Sergei asked Chastity to collect the monies for him. She has done so for the last eleven months."

"Did she say how Simon grew to be involved in the operation?"

"She said that she and Simon had realized that they loved each other about six months ago, and that they wanted an escape and to run away together. Simon had said they had come up with the plan to skim the monies together, but Chastity told us that it was solely her idea and that Simon had nothing to do with it. She told us that she had starting skimming the profits and creating the escape plan about six months ago, and Simon moved into her apartment at the same time. They've been living in fear that they would be caught out ever since."

"So did she say what had her so scared?"

"She said that Sergei had called her and said that he wanted the money that she had stolen from him. She had gone to Simon and told him that they needed fake ID created, and they had to leave town as fast as they could. When she originally called him, she told him that she was going to Trenton and would be in witness protection, and that he should meet her there and she would then leave with him to go to Mexico from New Jersey. However, then you changed the location that she was in and she phoned Simon to let him know, and to inform him that Sergei was en route and she therefore was escaping Rangeman staff and that he should meet her in Miami instead of Trenton with the fake ID. Then Rangeman staff caught her and wouldn't leave her alone to call Simon to let him know that she was alright, and they wouldn't let her answer the phone when Simon called. So Simon was terrified for Chastity and Chastity was terrified for Simon."

"What is your next step?"

"Chastity gave us the details on Sergei's operation, and we actually talked more about Sergei's operation than we did about the Chastity/Simon angle. She knew he was from Russia, but she didn't know that he was from the Russian mafia. She thought this was a single operation and didn't realize that Sergei was part of a large ring. She knew he was involved in extortion and money laundering through buying her the jewels, but didn't realize that he was involved in arms dealing. She gave us the details on the entire extortion operation, from dollar amounts to the people he was threatening and receiving money from to the collection of the monies and what bank account she deposited the money into. She didn't know that Sergei wasn't his real name. She gave us everything we needed. So Simon gave us everything we needed on Chastity, which Chastity confirmed and Chastity gave us everything we needed for Sergei. We didn't even have to offer her a deal, which we wouldn't have anyway since she played such a key part."

"What are you planning on doing about Sergei?"

"We had Chastity call him and tell him that he would never find her. We let him realize that she was back in Atlanta, and we let him book a return plane ticket. The Miami police met him at the airport and have taken him into custody for us. We have informed the FBI and they have two officers on the way to collect him."

"So all's well that ends well?"

"Absolutely. It's been a good day. With your help, we've been able to stop an extortion ring from happening. Bruno and Sven and Ronald are all in custody on various charges, and the FBI is en route to pick them up as well. Chastity and Simon will be charged here. We couldn't have done this without you. Thank you."

"You're welcome. What will happen to the officer who falsified the research?"

"There is an internal investigation being done and, in the meantime, he has been suspended."

"I suspect that he had been working for Sergei against his will."

"It is entirely because of your suspicion that he hasn't been arrested. My father said that he would like to talk to Ranger further about having you do some research work for us on our thorniest problems. He liked the way that you were able to open up the investigation and find out connections that we had, to that point, been unable to make."

"I got lucky."

Samantha laughed. "Somehow, I think you get lucky a lot."

I smiled. "No comment."

Samantha laughed again. "Tell Ranger to call my father when he gets back to Trenton."

"Will do. He won't call until tomorrow though", I said. "After all, we're on our honeymoon." I heard the final boarding call. "I'm sorry. We have to go or we'll miss our flight."

"Have a safe flight back", she said and she hung up.

Ranger and I boarded the plane and took our seats, put on our seatbelts and put our phones on airplane mode. I told Ranger everything that Samantha told me as the plane taxied to the runway, and as the plane took off I told him that the Chief wanted him to prepare a proposal for our services. Ranger laughed. "At this rate", he said, "we'll have all the cities on the eastern seaboard signed up."

"Heaven help me."

Ranger laughed again, put his arm around me and pulled me into the side of his body. He kissed me on the head. "I'm so proud of you, babe."

I adjusted myself so that I was more comfortable and closed my eyes and smiled. I was right where I had always dreamed that I'd be. In the arms of the man that I adored, and doing a job that I was good at and was recognized as being good at. And as I fell asleep, I thought that life didn't get much better than that.

As the seatbelt sign went on and the pilot announced that we were doing our final descent, I woke from my nap and looked down at the tray in front of me. Ranger had snagged a snack of cheese and crackers and a bag of apple slices for me while I had been sleeping. I sat up and opened the cheese and crackers and quickly consumed them. I was hungry. "You never told me how you met Wes", I said.

Ranger smiled. "I was chasing a felon for Vinnie, actually. He had been seen last in Atlanta, so I left Tank at home and came down to Atlanta to find him. It took me a couple of days, but I saw him across the street from where I was doing surveillance. He looked like he was on a mission, so for some reason instead of running up to him and capturing him, I decided to follow him. He went into a bank. When I followed him in, he had a gun out and had it trained on Wes. Wes had been training a new security guard, and my skip was in the process of taking Wes's gun away from him. The person Wes was training had literally wet his pants, so I knew that he wouldn't be much help. The tellers were all frozen in fear and the other patrons were crying. The skip indicated to me that I should go up to the front with the rest of the patrons. I did, but with a detour to pass as close to the felon as I dared. The felon didn't like me passing by so close, so he took his gun off Wes and trained it on me and, when he did that, I struck. I disabled the felon, pulled out my cuffs and cuffed him, and had him lying on the floor with his legs spread when the police showed up. This was before I had cut my hair and turned respectable, and Wes looked at me and offered me a job as a security guard. He said that I looked like I needed work. I laughed and told him about Rangeman, and he offered to take me out for dinner as a thank you for saving his life. And when we were out for dinner we discovered a lot of similarities in our outlooks. That was when we decided that we would probably do well if we partnered up. We thought about it a little more, like about three months more, but then we hammered out the deal that let both of us grow beyond what we each had been able to achieve on our own. And that was really the start of our growth for both of us."

"So Lizzie was serious in her thinking that Wes would have been killed if you hadn't shown up?" I opened the bag of apple slices and offered one to Ranger. He smiled, thanked me, and shook his head.

"She believes that, and Wes believes that. However, I didn't do anything special. I just disarmed the skip. And after he was brought in and charged, I was able to go back to Trenton with my body receipt and get Vinnie's money back. It was, in actuality, a fairly straightforward capture."

"With the potential for things to go desperately wrong."

"Yes, but they could all go desperately wrong. That's part of the job. That's why I'm glad that you aren't capturing skips right now. I wouldn't want to have to worry about you."

The flight attendants asked everyone to put their seats in an upright position and their trays up. That was, of course, when I decided that I had to tinkle. It always seemed that whenever you weren't allowed to tinkle, that was the time when you most desperately had to, and this was no exception. "Oh no", I said. I crossed my legs.

"What's wrong?"

"Pregnancy bladder."

"We should land soon."

"Thank goodness the airport is small."

"There should be a bathroom near the exit into the airport", said Ranger.

"I guess that second bottle of water before my nap was a bad idea."

"I thought you said that it was important to hydrate on flights."

"Apparently I hydrated too much."

Ranger smiled. "We'll be there soon. You can go while I wait for the bags."

"You're my hero. Find me a bathroom and I'll love you forever."

Ranger grinned. "I didn't know you were so easy."

"And you thought it would take a wedding ring to make me profess undying love."

Ranger laughed. "All I had to do was find you a bathroom?"

"Apparently that will become even more valuable an activity as I go further along in my pregnancy."

Ranger smiled. "The vows should have been to love, cherish, and always locate a bathroom for you?"

"It would have been a more useful vow. I mean, how useful is the vow to obey someone?"

"I think it would be very useful."

"Hunh. I could say it all I wanted, but I would never do it. It's a useless vow."

Ranger smiled. "I can't actually see you doing the obey part of the vows either. You aren't a dog to be commanded to do as I will."

"I'm glad we cut that out of our service." The plane finished its final descent, and I looked out the window to see the ground coming closer and closer. Pretty soon we could see the windsocks on the airport and then the plane touched down once, twice, and taxied to the terminal. "Thank God", I said.

"You really have to pee, don't you?"

"Yes!"

"Soon, babe."

The other passengers clapped as we taxied into the gate and I shook my head. "Why do people clap? The flight crew was just doing their job. Do you clap when a taxi driver delivers you to your destination? Do you clap when the cashier at the grocery store rings up your order? Do you clap when a bank teller withdraws money from your account? No. So why do people clap when a plane lands successfully?"

"Because they are so happy to be on the ground?"

"That doesn't make sense to me. It was a good flight. There was nothing wrong with the flight. It was routine from beginning to end. There is no need to be happy to be on the ground. That reminds me of a story."

"What's that?"

"There was a man travelling on business, and he was seated beside a man who didn't appear to have a lot of brains. They talked a bit as people sitting beside each other do, when the pilot came onto the intercom and said, 'I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but one of our engines has gone on the right side of the plane. This is okay though, as we still have three other engines to get us to your destination. It will just take us a little longer, and we'll be landing twenty minutes late.' There were groans in the cabin but people were accepting what had happened fairly well. Fifteen minutes later the pilot came on and said, 'I'm sorry, folks, but one of the engines on the left side of the plane has died. It's okay, because we have two more engines. But we will now be an hour late to our destination.' There were more groans, and half an hour after that the pilot came on again and said, 'I'm sorry, everybody, but another engine has gone. That's okay, but we'll now be two hours late to our destination.' With that the dumb passenger turns to the businessman and says, 'I hope we don't lose another engine or we'll be up here all night!'"

Ranger groaned.

The plane came to a stop and the seatbelt sign went off, and I popped to my feet, grabbed my purse as Ranger picked up his laptop bag, and hustled to the exit from the plane. As I was herded through the door, the flight attendant said, "the bathroom is just to the bottom of the ramp outside these doors on your right." I looked at her in surprise. She smiled. "I overheard you, and I was pregnant once."

I laughed. "Bless you", I said.

I ran through the people until I got to the bathroom, and ran inside. There was thankfully an empty stall, and I sighed with relief as I sat and used the facilities. I emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later at a much more relaxed pace, and Ranger smiled at me. "Better?" he said.

"Much", I said. "I thought I was going to mow down the woman with the walker in an attempt to get to the bathroom sooner."

"I actually thought you were about to as well", said Ranger. "But you seemed to miss both the senior with the walker _and_ the two-year old playing with his stuffed dragon. I don't know how you did it."

"I guess I'm just talented that way. I was focused on my mission and I knew that, if I didn't avoid them, I'd have to stop to make sure they were alright, and that would delay my visit to the bathroom."

Ranger laughed.

Tank was waiting at the baggage carousel for us, and we joined him as the warning sound went off and the baggage carousel started to turn and bags started to fall onto the conveyor. "How was your trip?" said Tank.

"Good", I said. "We might have picked up more work for Rangeman."

Tank frowned. "You were supposed to be on your honeymoon, not working." He turned to Ranger. "Please tell me that you didn't work while you were away, above and beyond what you'd had planned. That was already bad enough." He shook his head and looked down at me. "What happened to your hand?"

"Have we got a story for you", I said with a laugh. Ranger groaned. "So there was this girl named Chastity Knott that I went to high school with…"

_~ The End ~_

_I hope you liked Step 36. Snatched 37 is the next book in the series, and I intend to start to post it today. - Sarah_


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